Significance of 14q translocations in non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

Chromosome studies were performed on malignant cells obtained from 22 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphomas. A marker chromosome resulting from a translocation that affected the long arm of No. 14 (14q+) was the single most frequent abnormality and was noted in 14 of these patients. The frequency of the 14q+ marker chromosome varied with the type of lymphoma as defined by Rappaport. When the Lukes and Collins classification was used, the 14q+ marker was consistently associated with lymphomas having a clone of large noncleaved cells, small cleaved cells, and small noncleaved cells, but was absent in lymphomas composed of a clone of large cleaved cells and small lymphocytes. The findings suggest that, in certain groups of lymphoid malignancies, cells with a 14q translocation have a proliferative advantage compared with cells having other chromosome rearrangements, and that these malignant cells could be derived from a common progenitor.