"Our group studied the gene expression profiles of 71 previous, untreated HIV-negative patients with sporadic Burkitt lymphoma or Burkitt-like lymphoma," said Kai Fu, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, pathology and microbiology, at UNMC and the second author of the study. "We successfully identified a gene expression signature for Burkitt lymphoma that clearly distinguishes Burkitt lymphoma from DLBCL."
Using the gene expression signature for Burkitt lymphoma, the group was readily able to distinguish Burkitt lymphoma from DLBCL by the high expression of the c-myc target gene as well as a subset of other target genes.
Overall survival was markedly superior for patients with a molecular diagnosis of Burkitt lymphoma, as they were given an intensive chemotherapy regimen instead of a lower dose regimen. Notably, eight cases given a pathological diagnosis of DLBCL were re-classified by gene expression as Burkitt lymphoma. These cases had all the gene expression hallmarks of Burkitt lymphoma, suggesting that they represent cases of Burkitt lymphoma that are difficult to diagnose by current methods.
The study results would suggest that gene expression profiling is an accurate, quantitative method to distinguish Burkitt lymphoma from DLBCL, Dr. Fu said. "This study gives us another example of the usefulness of gene expression profiling for defining biologic entities with important implications for clinical research and practice," he said.
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Contact: Tom O'Connor
toconnor@unmc.edu
402-559-4690
University of Nebraska Medical Center
9-Jun-2006