RESUMO
AIM: Gene rearrangement has an important role in the management of lymphoma. We investigated the rearrangements of B-cell leukaemia/lymphoma 2 (BCL2), BCL6 and Paired homeobox 5 (PAX5) genes in Indonesian follicular lymphoma (FL) patients. METHODS: We examined gene rearrangements using various kinds of polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) on 24 patients' peripheral blood DNA. RESULTS: BCL2 rearrangement was found in 58% (14 of 24 patients), 8 at mbr (major breakpoint region), 2 at mcr (minor cluster region) and 4 at icr (intermediate cluster region), respectively. No rearrangement in BCL6 and PAX5 was detected. There was a significant difference in the incidence of spleen involvement between patients with BCL-2 rearrangement and without it (50% vs. 11%, p=0.04). BCL-2 rearrangement was correlated with spleen involvement (OR=9) and anemia (OR=2.3). CONCLUSION: BCL2 rearrangement in Indonesian FL was higher than previous reports from other Asia countries (58% vs. 48%, respectively). Our method using peripheral blood DNA might be useful for the molecular diagnosis of FL.