title: Hyperactivated STAT3 in ALK-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma with clathrin-ALK fusion.
abstract: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive large B-cell lymphoma is a rare subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Although a few cases of ALK-positive large B-cell lymphoma harbor nucleophosmin-ALK chromosomal translocation similar to ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma, most reported cases are characterized by t(2;17)(p23;q23) involving the clathrin gene. Here, we report 2 cases of ALK-positive DLBCL. The 2 cases presented similar morphologic features and immunohistochemical characteristics, that is, positivity for ALK, IgA, CD138, and MUM1; weak positivity for CD30 and CD79a; and negativity for CD20. The clathrin-ALK transcript was identified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and the sequence was determined by direct sequencing. Recently, the essential role of STAT3 activation as well as STAT 5 activation in nucleophosmin-ALK fusion protein-mediated lymphomagenesis was reported. However, differential effects of ALK-fusion variant proteins on proliferation, transformation, and invasion properties were reported. Thus, we evaluated the phosphorylation status of STAT 3 and STAT 5, and found highly hyperphosphorylated STAT 3 on tyrosine 705 but not STAT 5 in our 2 cases of ALK-positive DLBCL with clathrin-ALK fusion. Furthermore, STAT 5A expression was not detected in either of the ALK-positive DLBCL cases, although 11 of the 36 ALK-negative DLBCL cases revealed STAT 5A expression. Expression of the antiapoptotic proteins survivin and BCL-X(L), which were believed to be the targets of STAT 3, was investigated. However, there were no significant associations between expression of survivin or BCL-X(L) and ALK positivity among the diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. In summary, similar signaling transduction mechanism involving STAT proteins seems to underlie DLBCL harboring the clathrin-ALK or nucleophosmin-ALK fusion gene.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical University, Kawagoe, Saitama 350-8550, Japan. momose@saitama-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Momose
authors.forename: Jun-ichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tamaru
authors.forename: Hirohisa
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kishi
authors.forename: Ittaku
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mikata
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Yasuo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Toyozumi
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Itoyama