Clonal chromosome abnormalities in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients revealed by TPA stimulation of whole blood cultures.

Cells from 52 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and two patients with prolymphocytic leukemia were stimulated in whole blood or bone marrow culture with the polyclonal B-cell mitogen tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate (TPA). Stimulation was successful in 50 of the 54 cases. Comparison with Epstein-Barr virus and pokeweed mitogen showed them to be much less successful mitogens under the conditions used. Twenty-one patients (39%) were found to have clonal abnormalities that were probably disease-related. The most common abnormality was trisomy 12 (five patients). Four patients had a deletion of the long arm of chromosome #11 and one patient had a t(11;14). Five patients had abnormalities of the long arm of chromosome #13, with four probably having breaks in band q14. Two patients were seen with trisomy 3 as the only abnormality. Overall, the results were similar to those of other groups, which shows that considerable karyotypic information can be obtained from the use of a single mitogen on a large series of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients.