Translocation and rearrangements of the c-myc oncogene locus in human undifferentiated B-cell lymphomas.

The locus for the cellular myc (c-myc) oncogene in humans is located on the region of chromosome 8 that is translocated to chromosome 14 in cells from most undifferentiated B-cell lymphomas. It is shown in this study that the c-myc locus is rearranged in 5 out of 15 cell lines from patients with undifferentiated B-cell lymphomas, and that the rearrangement involves a region at the 5' side of an apparently intact c-myc gene. In at least three patients, this rearranged region appears to contain immunoglobulin heavy chain mu sequences that are located on chromosome 14. The data indicate that this region contains the crossover point between chromosomes 8 and 14. The break point can occur at different positions on both chromosomes among individual cell lines.