ABSTRACT
Background: The t[8;14][q24.1;q32] and its variants - the t[2;8][p12;q24.1] and t[8;22][q24.1; q11.2] are associated with B-cell neoplasia and result in MYC/immunoglobulin [IG] gene rearrangement
Patients and methods: We correlated the cytogenetic, molecular and clinico-pathological findings of patients with 8q24 translocations seen in the Department of Haematology, Christian Medical College, Vellore, from January 2003 to December 2015
Results: There were 34 patients with 8q24 translocations [31, ALL and three myeloma]. The t [8;14] was seen in 25 patients, t[8;22] in seven and t[2;8] in two. The salient findings were as follows: 85% males; 79% adults, median age 37 years; L3 morphology in 61%; mature B immunophenotype in 77%; extra-medullary disease in 41%; additional abnormalities in 28 [85%], notably, structural abnormalities of chromosome 1q [41%] and 13q [9%] and monosomy 13 [15%]; complex karyotypes in 68%. There were two double-hit lymphoma/leukemia, one with a t[14;18][q32;q21] and the other with a t[3;14][q27;q11.2], associated with nodal high grade B cell lymphoma and dermal leukemic infiltrates respectively Only 13 samples were processed for DNA PCR and all these samples were positive for MYC-IgH [c-gamma type] rearrangement. Only in one patient, in addition to c-gamma, c-alpha rearrangement was also detected
Conclusion: The frequency [1.7%] and distribution of these translocations in our series and the association with 1q and 13q abnormalities is similar to the literature. Trisomies 7 and 12 were seen in less than 10% of our patients