Transrearrangements as biomarkers for risk of lymphoid malignancy

In this chapter we describe an assay for lymphocyte specific antigen receptor transrearrangements mediated by the V(D)J recombinase complex. Such transrearrangements occur in all normal individuals, are capable of increasing the immune repertoire and can be viewed as a readily available baseline measure of a type of genetic instability. In human and murine systems, the absolute number of some of these transrearrangements correlates at the population level with risk for the development of lymphoid malignancy.