No evidence of a correlation between BCL10 expression and API2-MALT1 gene rearrangement in ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma.

In the present study, 62 cases of ocular adnexal lymphoproliferative disorders were reviewed clinicopathologically. Of them, 51 were extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (MALT lymphoma), five were diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), one was peripheral T-cell lymphoma, one was NK/T cell lymphoma, nasal type, and four were reactive lymphoid hyperplasia. These lymphoma cases showed a favorable clinical course and localized disease, except for the case of NK/T cell lymphoma, although 19 cases (32.8%) had a recurrence of disease. To clarify the correlation between BCL10 protein expression and API2-MALT1 gene rearrangement, the 51 cases of MALT lymphoma and 5 cases of DLBCL were analyzed by immunohistochemical and RT-PCR methods. Nuclear BCL10 expression was identified in 58% of MALT lymphoma cases, but not in any DLBCL cases. There was no evidence of a correlation between aberrant nuclear BCL10 expression and the clinical parameters examined in the present study. API2-MALT1 transcription was not demonstrated in either the MALT lymphoma cases or the DLBCL cases studied using a multiplex one-tube reverse transcriptase-PCR method. These findings indicate that the nuclear expression of BCL10 is unlikely to correlate with the API2-MALT1 fusion gene in ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma.