Comparative Genomic Hybridization and Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

The first reported recurring chromosome aberrations in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) were published in the early 1980s. Over the past 10 yr, a number of studies (1 –4 ) as well as data from the International Workshop on Chromosomes in CLL (5 ) confirmed that the chromosomal changes in B-cells are frequent and, using modern molecular cytogenetic techniques, genomic aberrations can be diagnosed in approx 80% of CLL patients (6 ,7 ). The genomic regions recurrently affected by chromosomal deletions, trisomies, and, less frequently, translocations probably contain tumor suppressor genes and oncogenes. The identification of these changes is important for the understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease and has prognostic information, which is independent from that obtained by the conventional clinical markers.