Somatic rearrangement of the c-myc oncogene in primary human diffuse large-cell lymphoma

Chromosome translocations involving 8q24, the band to which c-myc has been mapped (Dalla-Favera et al., 1982), are a uniform finding in Burkitt's lymphoma (Bernheim et al., 1981). However, in only a minority of the tumors is the rearrangement of the c-myc locus sufficiently close to the gene to be detected with currently available probes (Dalla-Favera et al., 1983). Approximately 25% of diffuse large-cell lymphomas have also been reported to have translocations involving 8q24 (Mitelman, 1985), but there have been no reports of c-myc rearrangements in this form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. We have examined the structure of the c-myc locus in primary tumor tissue of 10 cases of diffuse large-cell lymphoma. In one patient, Southern blot analysis revealed additional c-myc fragments in the tumor DNA but not in the germ-line DNA. Southern blot analysis using probes from both the heavy- and light-chain immunoglobin loci showed that the myc rearrangement was unlikely to involve the immunoglobulin loci in this patient.