Nuclear microarray combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization for detecting ALK gene translocation in paraffin-embedded anaplastic large cell lymphoma and its significance / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare the efficacy of nuclear microarray combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and immunohistochemistry in detecting ALK gene translocation and ALK fusion protein in anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>ALK gene translocation and ALK fusion protein in 17 paraffin-embedded ALCL specimens were detected using nuclear microarray combined with FISH and immunohistochemical straining, respectively.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The expression of ALK fusion protein was detected immunohistochemically with ALK antibody in 8 of the 17 specimens of systemic ALCL, including 4 with both nuclear and cytoplasmic positivity and 4 with only cytoplasmic positivity. Dual-color FISH identified 6 positive specimens, including the 4 specimens with both nuclear and cytoplasmic positivity as identified immunohistochemically, and 2 with immunohistochemical cytoplasmic positivity. FISH yielded negative results for the 2 specimens with immunohistochemical cytoplasmic positivity.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Nuclear microarray combined with FISH eliminated the cytoplasmic interference of the results of conventional FISH and provides a high-throughput platform for clinical detection with greater specificity than immunohistochemistry.</p>