Oligonucleotide-based array CGH as a diagnostic tool in multiple myeloma patients

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological disease caused by malignant proliferation of clonal plasma cells (PCs) known for its clinical and biological heterogeneity. Identification of chromosomal changes in genome of PCs plays a key role in MM pathogenesis and is supposed to have important prognostic significance for MM patients. There are two major genetic entities in MM. Hyperdiploid tumors (H-MM), which include about 50% of MM tumors, often have multiple trisomies involving chromosomes 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 15, 19, and 21 and a substantially lower prevalence of IgH translocations. Nearly half of tumors are non-hyperdiploid (NH-MM), and mostly have one of five recurrent IgH translocations: 11ql13 (CCND1), 6p21 (CCND3), 16q23 (MAF), 20q12 (MAFB), and 4p16 (FGFR3 and MMSET). The development and expanded use of new technologies, such as genome-wide array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) has accelerated genomic research in MM. This technique is a powerful tool to globally analyze recurrent copy number changes in tumor genome in a single reaction and to study cancer biology and clinical behaviors. It widely overcame routinely used cytogenetic techniques (G-banding, FISH) both in minimal resolution of chromosomal changes and amount of obtained genomic data important for further analyses and clinical applications. Array CGH technique is now used to better understanding of molecular phenotypes, sensitivity to particular chemotherapeutic agents, and prognosis of these diseases. This paper brings brief literature and methodic overview of oligonucleotide-based array-CGH technique in MM diagnosis.