[Neoplasias in hematopoietic tissues]

Leukemia-specific chromosomal aberrations are the most reliable tumor markers. Although chromosome analysis is a powerful diagnostic tool, some aberrations like monosomy 7 in AML, 15; 17 translocation in APL and trisomy 12 in CLL are not adequately detected. Fluorescence in situ hybridization is a recent method to detect specific genetic alteration in both interphase and mitoic cells and overcomes the disadvantages of conventional cytogenetics, Southern blotting and RT-PCR. In this manuscript, the advantages and limitations of the methods used for detecting leukemia/lymphoma specific chromosomal markers were discussed.