Cytogenetic studies of childhood non-Hodgkin lymphomas

Cytogenetic examination by means of the Giemsa banding technique was performed on 11 biopsies from six children with non-Hodgkin lymphoma: three lymphoblastic T-cell lymphomas, two lymphoblastic B-cell Burkitt-like lymphomas, and one malignant histiocytosis. All patients were males, aged 1–13 years. At diagnosis 4 patients displayed clonal karyotypic changes. Two patients had at diagnosis only metaphases with a normal diploid karyotype; in one of these cases repeated investigations during the course of the disease demonstrated evolution to an abnormal karyotype. All patients with abnormalities had different karyotypic changes. In the total material the following clonal aberrations were identified: i(1q), t(1; 17) (p36; q21), t(2; 5) (p21; q35), del(4) (q24), del(9) (q22), t(13; ?) (q34; ?), t(14; 18)(q32; q21), t(17; ?) (p13; ?), and +20.