OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship between histopathological subtype of non-Hodgkin' s lymphoma(NHL) and chromosomal abnormalities, and compare the difference of chromosomal abnormalities between China and the West.

METHODSRoutine G banding chromosome analysis and fluorescent in situ hybridization( FISH) were performed on lymph node specimens from 155 NHL patients.

RESULTSDiffuse large B-cell lymphoma( DLBCL) constituted 38.1% of the cases followed by follicular lymphoma(FL) 17.4% , small lymphocytic lymphoma( SLL) 10.3% , peripheral T-cell lymphoma ( PTCL) ( unspecified) 8.4%, and angioimmunoblastic lymphoma 7.1%. One hundred nineteen patients (76. 8%) had clonal chromosomal abnormalities. The incidence of chromosomal abnormalities among FL, SLL, DLBCL, anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) and precursor T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (TLBL) was 96.3% , 87.5% , 86.4%, 83.3% and 83.3%, respectively. Complex karyotype was 86. 3% in DLBCL. The most frequent structural abnormalities in DLBCL involved chromosomes 3, 6, 14 and 1, with had high frequencies of 3q27 (41.2%) and 6q21, 6q23, 6q25 involvement (23.5%). But only 2 cases of DLBCL had classical t( 14; 18) (q32;q21) which was lower than that in the West (20%). The positive rate of IgH rearrangement was 40. 1% in DLBCL by FISH. No 13q14 deletion was found in 16 cases of SLL. Normal karyotype was observed in 8/11 cases with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma patients.

CONCLUSIONSThe distribution of the histopathological subtypes of NHL is different among different geographical areas. The chromosomal abnormalities in DLBCL was comparable between China and the West, but t( 14; 18) was infrequent in the former. The chromosomal abnormalities in SLL was different from the West. The incidence of chromosomal abnormalities in angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma was lower than that in the West.