Diagnostic value of immunoglobulin κ light chain gene rearrangement analysis in B-cell lymphomas

Int J Oncol. 2015 Mar;46(3):953-62. doi: 10.3892/ijo.2014.2790. Epub 2014 Dec 9.

Abstract

Analysis of the immunoglobulin κ light chain (IGK) gene is an alternative method for B-cell clonality assessment in the diagnosis of mature B-cell proliferations in which the detection of clonal immunoglobulin heavy chain (IGH) gene rearrangements fails. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the added value of standardized BIOMED-2 assay for the detection of clonal IGK gene rearrangements in the diagnostic setting of suspected B-cell lymphomas. With this purpose, 92 specimens from 80 patients with the final diagnosis of mature B-cell lymphoma (37 specimens), mature T-cell lymphoma (26 specimens) and reactive lymphoid proliferation (29 specimens) were analyzed for B-cell clonality. B-cell clonality analysis was performed using the BIOMED-2 IGH and IGK gene clonality assays. The determined sensitivity of the IGK assay was 67.6%, while the determined sensitivity of the IGH assay was 75.7%. The sensitivity of combined IGH+IGK assay was 81.1%. The determined specificity of the IGK assay was 96.2% in the group of T-cell lymphomas and 96.6% in the group of reactive lesions. The determined specificity of the IGH assay was 84.6% in the group of lymphomas and 86.2% in the group of reactive lesions. The comparison of GeneScan (GS) and heteroduplex pretreatment-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (HD-PAGE) methods for the analysis of IGK gene rearrangements showed a higher efficacy of GS analysis in a series of 27 B-cell lymphomas analyzed by both methods. In the present study, we demonstrated that by applying the combined IGH+IGK clonality assay the overall detection rate of B-cell clonality was increased by 5.4%. Thus, we confirmed the added value of the standardized BIOMED-2 IGK assay for assessment of B-cell clonality in suspected B-cell lymphomas with inconclusive clinical and cyto/histological diagnosis.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study

MeSH terms

  • B-Lymphocytes / pathology*
  • Gene Rearrangement*
  • Genetic Techniques*
  • Humans
  • Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / genetics
  • Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains / genetics*
  • Lymphoma, B-Cell / genetics*
  • Lymphoma, T-Cell / genetics
  • Sensitivity and Specificity

Substances

  • Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains
  • Immunoglobulin kappa-Chains