Rearrangement of both immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes in a
prolymphocytic variant of hairy cell leukemia patient resistant to
interferon-alpha [published erratum appears in Blood 1989 Feb;73(2):624]
SL Giardina, HA Young, CR Faltynek, ES Jaffe, JW Clark, RG Steis, WJ Urba, BJ Mathieson, H Gralnick and J Lawrence
Biological Carcinogenesis Development Program, NCI-Frederick Cancer
Research Facility, MD 21701.
We describe a patient with the so-called "prolymphocytic variant" form of
hairy cell leukemia (HCL) resistant to treatment with interferon- alpha
(IFN-alpha). Analysis of immunoglobulin (Ig) and T-cell receptor- beta (TCR
beta) gene rearrangements from serial peripheral blood mononuclear cell
specimens (MNCs) confirmed not only the B-cell nature of the disease, but
also the subsequent emergence of a morphologically indistinguishable
population of cells with a clonal TCR beta rearrangement in addition to the
original Ig gene rearrangement. With the exception of a transient increase
in peripheral blood T cells during treatment with deoxycoformycin (DCF),
the MNCs remained essentially constant throughout therapy with no evidence
of a co- existing T-cell clone to account for the TCR beta rearrangement.
Although MNCs from this patient bound significantly less IFN-alpha than did
MNCs from other HCL patients, the binding was of high affinity with a kd
similar to that of control cells. The number of IFN-gamma receptors on our
patient's MNCs was four times higher than the number of IFN-alpha receptors
and was similar to the number of IFN-alpha receptors on MNCs from HCL
patients responsive to IFN-alpha. While various treatments including
IFN-alpha, DCF, chlorambucil, splenectomy, leukopheresis, and IFN-gamma
were not able to change the clinical progression of the disease, they may
have provided an opportunity for the divergent TCR beta rearranged clone to
expand and displace the initially dominant clone.
Volume 72,
Issue 5,
pp. 1708-1716,
11/01/1988
Copyright © 1988 by The American Society of Hematology