title: Detection of the Philadelphia chromosome in paraffin-embedded tissue by fluorescence in situ hybridization.
abstract: The bcr-abl fusion gene situated on the Philadelphia chromosome is a tumor-specific marker for chronic myelogenous leukemia. We evaluated the usefulness of two color fluorescence in situ hybridization with bcr and abl probes as a means of detecting the Philadelphia chromosome in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of spleen and lymph node specimens from eight patients with myeloproliferative diseases showing clinical and morphological features of chronic myelogenous leukemia in accelerated phase. Our analysis showed co-localized hybridization signals corresponding to the bcr-abl fusion product in tissue sections from six patients previously found to have the Philadelphia chromosome by conventional cytogenetics and polymerase chain reaction. The two remaining specimens lacked bcr-abl fusion signals and were obtained from patients who were negative for the Philadelphia chromosome by cytogenetic and polymerase chain reaction analysis. We conclude that fluorescence in situ hybridization is a sensitive method for the detection of the bcr-abl fusion gene in histological specimens from patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia. The technique may become a useful tool in the evaluation of tissue specimens from patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia and related Philadelphia chromosome-positive hematologic malignancies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pathology, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California.
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Brynes
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McCourty
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Traweek
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Slovak
mesh_terms: D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D010677:Philadelphia Chromosome
chemical_list: D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl