Significance of aneuploidy in non-Hodgkin lymphomas

The incidence of aneuploidy was determined by flow cytometric analysis in paraffin-embedded tumor samples of 125 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). There were 48 low-grade (LG) and 77 high-grade (HG) tumors. Aneuploidy was found in 34 (27%) NHL, 15 (31%) LG, and 19 (25%) HG tumors. The analysis of patient survival showed a significantly better survival of patients with LG than HG NHL, but the presence of aneuploidy did not influence the survival on the level of all patients, patients with LG or patients with HG NHL. In patients with LG NHL a tendency of diploid vs. aneuploid patients to survive longer was observed, but only at P = 0.056 significance level.