Molecular characterization of the region 7q22.1 in splenic marginal zone lymphomas

Splenic marginal zone lymphomas (SMZL) are an uncommon type of B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL-B) in which no specific chromosomal translocations have been described. In contrast, the most frequent cytogenetic abnormality is the loss of the long arm of chromosome 7 (7q). Previous reports have located this loss in the 7q32 region. In order to better characterize the genomic imbalances in SMZL, molecular studies were carried out in 73 patients with SMZL. To gain insight into the mapping at 7q a tiling array was also used. The results confirmed the loss of 7q as the most frequent change. In addition, several abnormalities, including 4q22.1, 1q21.3-q22, 6q25.3, 20q13.33, 3q28, 2q23.3-q24.1 and 17p13, were also present. A loss of 7q22.1 at 99925039-101348479 bp was observed in half of the cases. The region of 7q22.1 has not previously been characterised in SMZL. Our results confirmed the presence of a new region of loss on chromosome 7 in these NHL.