Missing Y chromosomes in lymph nodes from patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Five of 86 male patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma had chromosomally abnormal clones in their lymph nodes, which involved a missing Y chromosome. The loss of the Y chromosome was confined to the malignant cells when normal cells were present. The patients ranged in age from 41 to 85 years. All five patients had B-cell lymphomas with the histologic subtype diffuse large cell in two patients and immunoblastic, follicular large cell and follicular mixed in a single patient each. The t(14; 18)(q32;q21) chromosome abnormality accompanied the missing Y chromosome in four of the five patients. It appears that Y chromosome loss is one of the secondary abnormalities associated with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.