Utility of a rapid polymerase chain reaction panel for the detection of molecular changes in B-cell lymphoma

To evaluate the utility of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based, B-cell-related molecular panel in the diagnostic workup of hematologic specimens.

A PCR panel was applied to 89 specimens from 87 patients, including 55 cases (57 specimens) of known monoclonal B-cell lymphoma, 10 cases of Hodgkin's disease, 2 cases of T-cell lymphoma, and 20 specimens of polyclonal reactive lymphoid tissues. The panel comprised a seminested PCR procedure for immunoglobulin heavy-chain (IgH) gene rearrangement and unnested PCR detection of t(14;18) and t(11;14).

Immunoglobulin heavy-chain was detected in 63%, evidence of t(14;18) in 35%, and evidence of t(11;14) in 3.5% of all the B-cell lymphoma cases. Seventy-seven percent of all cases demonstrated IgH- and/or bcl-2-associated translocations using these primers. The IgH primers alone detected clonality in 82% (28/34) of the nonfollicular lymphomas and 35% (8/23) of the follicular lymphomas, with no false positives in the non-B-cell lymphoma specimens. The addition of two primer sets for the detection of both IgH and bcl-2/JH significantly improved the detection of molecular abnormalities in the follicular lymphoma group from 35% to 70% (16/23). However, no change was noted in the overall detection rate for the nonfollicular lymphoma group. Adding primers for bcl-1/JH did not change the overall detection rate for either group.

Seminested PCR for IgH detected monoclonality in the majority of the nonfollicular lymphomas and is a valuable diagnostic tool in this group. The combination of different primer sets for the detection of IgH gene rearrangement and bcl-2/JH is most desirable for follicular lymphomas.