A greater incidence of complex translocations in myeloid leukemias than in lymphomas and lymphoid leukemias associated with IGH rearrangement

We have shown that the incidence of complex translocations is approximately the same in chronic myeloid leukemia, characterized by the t(9;22)(q34;q11), and in acute myeloid leukemias, characterized by the t(15;17)(q22;q11) or t(8;21)(q22;q22). This incidence is almost threefold greater than the incidence of complex translocations in lymphomas and lymphoid leukemias characterized by the t(8;14)(q24;q32) or t(14;18)(q32;q21). The genomic recombination, which gives rise to the translocations in lymphoid cells, results mostly from errors of IGH gene rearrangement. Genomic recombination underlying myeloid leukemias has a different cause, and a clue to this may lie in the greater incidence of complex chromosome rearrangements.