Chromosome abnormalities in malignant lymphoma in patients from Saitama

Clonal chromosome abnormalities were found in 89 (97%) of 92 patients with non-Hodgkin's malignant lymphoma including immunologically determined 34 B- and 25 T-lymphomas; only 3 of 19 T-lymphoma patients examined had serum adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma-associated antigen antibody. Association of 8q24 translocations with small non-cleaved cell (P less than 0.01) and that of t(14;18) (q32;q21) with follicular histology (P = 0.03) were significant. Several other abnormalities were also found to be correlated with histological or immunological phenotypes: trisomy 5 with diffuse, mixed cell lymphoma (P = 0.03); a break at 3q21 with diffuse, large cell lymphoma (P = 0.04); gain of chromosome 18 or X and rearrangements of 13q with immunoblastic lymphoma (P = 0.02, 0.03, and 0.03, respectively); and rearrangements of 7q with diffuse large cell histology (P = 0.02) and T-cell phenotype (P = 0.02). Multiple clones were more frequently seen in T-cell lymphoma than in B-cell lymphoma (P = 0.01). Structural changes of the long arm of chromosome 4 or 15 and a break in 6p21 were also associated with T-lymphoma (P = 0.03, respectively). Since the frequency of T-lymphoma is significantly higher and that of t(14;18) is significantly lower in the adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma nonendemic area of Saitama in Japan than in Minnesota in the United States (P less than 0.01), factors affecting the lymphoma-genesis may be different or operating in different intensities in different areas.