Independent clones of trisomy 12 and retinoblastoma gene deletion in Japanese B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Trisomy 12 and a deletion of chromosome 13 are the most common chromosome abnormalities in patients with B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). We determined the frequencies of these abnormalities in Japanese B-CLL patients by FISH in interphase nuclei. Specimens from 42 patients were analyzed using both DNA probes specific to the centromeric region of chromosome 12 and the retinoblastoma (RB) gene. Among 42 patients, eight had trisomy 12 and 12 had the RB gene deletion. We found aberrations of trisomy 12 and the RB gene deletion in a totally different group of patients. This suggested that the trisomy 12 and the RB gene deletion occur in different clones and the presence of which in the same patient may be rare. Furthermore, the frequency of trisomy 12 (19%) found in Japanese B-CLL was lower than that in Western countries (30-35%). On the contrary, the frequency of the RB gene deletion (28.6%) was almost the same as in European B-CLL (30-35%). These results will be helpful in understanding the leukemogenesis of B-CLL.