Molecular detection of tumor cells at diagnosis invading the bone marrow and peripheral blood of patients with aggressive or indolent lymphomas

Yokohama, Akihiko; Karasawa, Masamitsu; Sakai, Hirotaka; Okamoto, Kiyoshi; Maehara, Tadashi; Tsukamoto, Norifumi; Tamura, Junichi; Naruse, Takuji; Sawamura, Morio; Shimano, Shunichi

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Volume 25, Issue 9 , Pages 749-755, 1 September 2001

Molecular detection of tumor cells at diagnosis invading the bone marrow and peripheral blood of patients with aggressive or indolent lymphomas

Akihiko Yokohama
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University, School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-cho, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-27-2208166; fax: +81-27-2208173
Masamitsu Karasawa
- Transfusion service, Gunma University, School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-cho, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Hirotaka Sakai
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University, School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-cho, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Kiyoshi Okamoto
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University, School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-cho, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Tadashi Maehara
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University, School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-cho, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Norifumi Tsukamoto
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University, School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-cho, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Junichi Tamura
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University, School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-cho, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Takuji Naruse
- Third Department of Internal Medicine, Gunma University, School of Medicine, 3-39-15 Showa-cho, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8511, Japan
Morio Sawamura
- National Nishigunma Hospital, Gunma 377-8511, Japan
Shunichi Shimano
- Gunma Cancer Center, Gunma 373-8511, Japan

Received 27 June 2000; accepted 30 December 2000.

Abstract

We studied tumor cell invasions of bone marrow and peripheral blood in patients with various types of advanced non-Hodgkin's lymphoma by amplifying complementarity determining region III using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method and developing patient-specific probes. After molecular engineering, we could detect tumor cells in bone marrow from seven of 11 cases and in peripheral blood from six of 11 cases, despite negative results in four cases studied morphologically. Indolent cases were more likely to yield positive results than aggressive cases. The reason may be different biological behaviors among the histological types.

Keywords: Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, PCR, CDRIII, Bone marrow invasion, Peripheral blood invasion

Abbreviations: PB, peripheral blood, BM, bone marrow, PCR, polymerase chain reaction, CDRIII, complementarity determining region III, MRD, minimal residual disease, MRI, magnetic resonance imaging