Jumping translocations in bone marrow cells of pediatric patients with hematologic malignancies: a rare cytogenetic phenomenon.

摘要

Jumping translocations (JTs) are uncommon constitutional or acquired chromosomal aberrations. JTs are caused by the translocation of a section of one chromosome into two or more different recipient chromosomes. Several mechanisms, such as pericentromeric heterochromatin decondensation, shortened telomeres, illegitimate recombination, virus infection, and chromosome instability, are proposed to induce JTs. However, the pathogenesis of JTs remains elusive (1-3).JTs have been observed in many types of neoplasia, including hematopoietic cancers. In these cases, JTs usually represent secondary changes and are associated with poor prognosis. The donor breakpoint occurs most frequently on chromosome 1q, contrary to the recipient sites, which are present on all chromosomes (4). Interestingly, most JTs are described in adult patients; the data for pediatric patients are rather scarce (4,5).