CD69 is independently prognostic in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a comprehensive clinical and biological profiling study.

Background: CD69 is expressed in several hemopoietic cells and is an early activation marker in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is a clinically heterogeneous disease which needs novel prognostic parameters which can be easily and efficiently managed.

Design And Methods: We investigated CD69 by flow cytometry in a series of 417 patients affected by chronic lymphocytic leukemia and compared this to other biological and clinical prognosticators.

13q14 deletion size and number of deleted cells both influence prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Deletion at 13q14 is detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in about 50% of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Although CLL with 13q deletion as the sole cytogenetic abnormality (del13q-only) usually have good prognosis, more aggressive clinical courses are documented for del13q-only CLL carrying higher percentages of 13q deleted nuclei. Moreover, deletion at 13q of different sizes have been described, whose prognostic significance is still unknown.

Characterization of Ph-negative abnormal clones emerging during imatinib therapy.

Background: Imatinib is a tyrosine kinase-specific inhibitor widely used for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Studies reported the occurrence of additional cytogenetic abnormalities in the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-negative cell population emerging after treatment-induced suppression of the Ph-positive clone. These abnormalities were described in a relatively high proportion of patients treated with imatinib compared with the anecdotal reports of similar cases in patients treated with other drugs.

Contribution of fluorescence in situ hybridization to immunohistochemistry for the evaluation of HER-2 in breast cancer.

The main focus of the present study was to assess the efficacy of interphase cytogenetics using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) as a valid alternative to immunohistochemistry (IHC) in paraffin-embedded tissue sections and/or the efficacy of the combination of the two methods, while, at the same time, aiming to provide additional information on the use of the two methods. For this study, selected breast cancer patients (n=66) were tested for HER-2 gene amplification by FISH. The probe contains DNA sequences specific for the HER-2 human gene locus and hybridizes to the 17q11.