Intracytoplasmic filamentous inclusions and IGHV rearrangements in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

IRIBARREN, PABLO; ARROYO, DANIELA; RODRÍGUEZ, CECILIA M.; HELLER, VIVIANA; BUSSI, CLAUDIO; SLAVUTSKY, IRMA; SASTRE, DARÍO; STANGANELLI, CARMEN

LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA

TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD

Año: 2017 vol. 59 p. 1239 - 1243

1042-8194

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) represents the mostcommon leukemia in the Western world, accounting for30?40% of all adult leukemias. The disease is characterizedby a highly variable clinical course, ranging fromindolent cases to patients with aggressive and rapidlyprogressing disease. Although staging systems are reliablepredictors of outcome, they do not fully explain theheterogeneity in treatment response and survival. In thelast decades, several prognostic biomarkers have beenidentified, allowing the subdivision of this heterogeneousdisease into clinical relevant subgroups. Among them,genomic alterations and the IGHV (immunoglobulin heavychain variable region) mutational status are of significance.Particularly, recurrent cytogenetic abnormalitiesnamely deletions of chromosomes 11q, 13q and 17p and,trisomy 12, define subgroups of patients with differentclinical behavior and response to treatment while IGHVmutational status permits to distinguish two major CLLsubtypes, mutated (M) associated with a good prognosis,and unmutated (UM), characterized by a poor clinicalevolution