Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 23, 2025
Interphase Fluorescence in situ Hybridization of Bone Marrow Smears of Multiple Myeloma
Published on: April 15, 2022
Diagnostic Approach for Double-Hit and Triple-Hit Lymphoma Based on Immunophenotypic and Cytogenetic Characteristics
Heyjin Kim1, Hee-Jin Kim2, Sun-Hee Kim2
1Department of Laboratory Medicine, Korea Cancer Center Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Background:
High-grade B-cell lymphoma with rearrangements of MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 (BCL2/BCL6), also known as double-hit lymphoma (DHL) and/or triple-hit lymphoma (THL), is a new entity of B-cell lymphoma in the 2017 WHO Classification. We retrospectively investigated D/THL and their clinico-laboratory features among cases of large B-cell lymphoma involving the bone marrow (BM), including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma, and B-cell lymphomas with medium to large lymphoid cells, by additional FISH analysis of BM aspirates.
Methods:
A total of 111 patients diagnosed with aggressive B-cell lymphomas or B-cell lymphoma involving the BM with medium to large-sized malignant lymphocytes were reviewed from January 2000 to January 2018. Patients with available BM aspirates were evaluated by immunophenotyping by flow cytometry, chromosome, and FISH analysis for MYC and/or BCL2/BCL6 rearrangements.
Results:
In total, 23/111 (20.7%) showed MYC rearrangement, and eight (7.2%) were reclassified as D/THL on BM after FISH analysis for MYC and BCL2/BCL6. The detection of CD5(-)/CD10(+) based on flow cytometry was strongly associated with D/THL. A complex karyotype with aberrations related to regions in MYC and BCL2/BCL6 was significantly associated with D/THL. When the MYC FISH results of 28 BM aspirates and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue specimens were compared, 14% were discrepant.
Conclusions:
Immunophenotypic and cytogenetic characteristics facilitate the diagnosis of D/THL in the cases with BM-involving aggressive B-cell lymphomas.
