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Prevalence of BCL-2/J(H) Translocation in Healthy African Americans

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Abstract

The translocation t(14;18)(q32;q21) (BCL-2/J(H)) is present in over 80 % of all follicular lymphomas and is detectable in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of healthy individuals. The prevalence of this translocation has not been studied in African Americans (AAs). Given the higher incidence of follicular lymphomas in whites compared to AAs in the United States (USA), we hypothesized that the translocation prevalence in the blood of AAs would be lower. DNA was isolated from PBL from blood samples collected from participants from FL. Polymerase chain reaction was performed on the BCL-2/J(H) major (MBC) and minor breakpoint cluster (mBC) regions. Eight of the 77 (10.4 %) blood samples from AA participants were positive for MBC (95 % CI, 4.6–19.5 %), and three (3.9 %) were positive for mBC (95 % CI, 0.81–10.97 %) of BCL-2/J(H), with a total of 11 (14.3 %) participants with positive samples (95 % CI, 7.35–24.13 %). In 167 white patient samples, 22 (13.2 %; 95 % CI, 8.44–19.26 %) were positive for MBC, and five (3.0 %; 95 % CI, 0.98–6.85 %) were positive for mBC, with a total of 25 (15 %) participants with positive samples (CI, 9.93–21.30 %). The prevalence of t(14;18)(q32;q21) is not significantly different among AAs and whites from the USA. The lower prevalence of follicular lymphomas in AAs compared with whites is likely a result of differences in secondary molecular alterations involved in follicular lymphoma development. This study is the first report of prevalence of t(14;18) in an AA cohort.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology and Oncology, Mayo Clinic, 4500 San Pablo Road, 32224, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Gerardo Colon-Otero, Sikander Ailawadhi, Prakash Vishnu, Matthew S. Jorgensen & James M. Foran

  2. Division of Hematology and Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, USA

    Scott A. Van Wier, Greg J. Ahmann, Esteban Braggio & Rafael Fonseca

  3. Clinical Studies Unit, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Monica L. Albertie

  4. Research Administrative Services, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Jennifer A. Weis

  5. Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    James R. Cerhan

  6. Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Colleen S. Thomas

Authors
  1. Gerardo Colon-Otero
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  2. Scott A. Van Wier
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  3. Greg J. Ahmann
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  4. Esteban Braggio
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  5. Monica L. Albertie
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  6. Jennifer A. Weis
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  7. Sikander Ailawadhi
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  8. James R. Cerhan
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  9. Prakash Vishnu
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  10. Matthew S. Jorgensen
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  11. James M. Foran
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  12. Colleen S. Thomas
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  13. Rafael Fonseca
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerardo Colon-Otero.

Ethics declarations

This project was part of a Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board-approved translational cancer research pilot study aimed at increasing awareness on the importance of cancer research among the Northeast Florida AA population.

Conflict of Interest

Dr. Colon-Otero discloses research funding with Novartis pharmaceuticals. Dr. Alawadhi discloses that he is a consultant for Novartis, Amgen, Pharmacyclics, and Takeda pharmaceuticals. Dr. Fonseca has received a patent for the prognostication of MM based on genetic categorization by FISH of the disease. He has a patent application pending for the use of calcium isotopes as biomarkers for bone metabolisms (primary site and investigators, Arizona State University). He has received consulting fees from Celgene, BMS, Bayer, Novartis, Sanofi, Janssen, Millennium, a Takeda Company, and AMGEN. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Applied Biosciences.

Mr. Van Wier, Mr. Ahmann, Dr. Braggio, Ms. Albertie, Ms. Weis, Dr. Cerhan, Dr. Vishnu, Mr. Jorgensen, Dr. Foran, and Ms. Thomas declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Study Funding

This paper was funded by the Mayo Clinic Office of Health Disparities Research, Mayo Clinic CTSA grant (NCRR/NIH Grant Number 1 UL1 RR024150), the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (NCI grant number P50-CA01508), and Active SPORE CA 90297052 grant.

Previous Presentations

This paper was presented at AACR Cancer Disparities Meeting, Atlanta, GA, USA, 2015.

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Colon-Otero, G., Van Wier, S.A., Ahmann, G.J. et al. Prevalence of BCL-2/J(H) Translocation in Healthy African Americans. Ann Hematol 96, 51–55 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-016-2842-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-016-2842-4

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