ROMA illuminates CLL genomic lesions

摘要

Despite its phenotypic homogeneity, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is clinically heterogeneous. Some patients have an aggressive disease and a poor prognosis, others an indolent course and a virtually normal life expectancy. The possibility of identifying CLL patients at diagnosis who harbor lesions known to be associated with poor prognosis would offer an opportunity for selective and more effective treatment for some while sparing others from toxic effects of therapy. This has led to a quest for biologically defined prognostic factors, the most widely used being scoring of the mutational status of immunoglobulin (IG)VH genes, expression of surface CD38 or cytoplasmic ZAP70, and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis for specific chromosomal lesions. FISH and comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) have clearly documented the clinical importance of the genetic subtyping of CLL