title: Plasmablastic lymphomas with MYC/IgH rearrangement: report of three cases and review of the literature.
abstract: We report detailed clinicopathologic features of 3 cases of plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) with MYC/IgH rearrangement, representing one third of PBL cases diagnosed at our institution. This study brings the total number of reported cases in the literature to 6. All patients were HIV+ with very low CD4 counts at diagnosis. The involved locations were mediastinum, anus, and bone marrow. Tumors exhibited predominantly immunoblastic/plasmablastic morphologic features and had a plasma cell-like immunophenotype. Bright CD38 expression by flow cytometry had a tendency to be more common in these cases compared with PBL without MYC rearrangement. All cases were positive for Epstein-Barr virus-encoded RNA but lacked human herpesvirus-8 latent nuclear antigen. The 2 patients with follow-up died within 3 months. These findings show that PBL is often associated with MYC/IgH rearrangements and that this finding may portend an aggressive clinical course, suggesting that cytogenetic studies should be routinely applied in cases of PBL.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Division of Hematopathology, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas 75390-9072, USA.
authors.forename: Agata M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bogusz
authors.forename: Adam C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Seegmiller
authors.forename: Rolando
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.forename: Raheela
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ashfaq
authors.forename: Weina
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D015326:Gene Rearrangement, B-Lymphocyte, Heavy Chain / Q000235:genetics; D016259:Genes, myc / Q000235:genetics*; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D016400:Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Immunoblastic / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains