Part of the natural history of follicle center lymphoma (FCL) is transformation to a more aggressive neoplasm, almost always a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. We describe a rare example of a precursor B-lymphoblastic transformation of grade I FCL occurring in a 45-year-old woman 12 years after initial presentation and 3 years after successful treatment for a diffuse large cell transformation. Th...

Multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia share common biological and clinical features including the presence of defined precursor conditions (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis respectively). Here, we discuss evidence from the literature on the potential aetiological roles for genetic and chronic immune stimulatory factors on the pa...

Therapy of relapsed pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is hampered by low remission rates and high toxicity, especially in second and subsequent relapses. Our phase 1 study, T2005-003, showed that the combination of bortezomib with vincristine, dexamethasone, pegylated asparaginase, and doxorubicin had acceptable toxicity. We report the phase 2 expansion of this combination in patient...

BACKGROUND Molecular mechanisms explaining age-related changes in the bone marrow with reduced precursor B cell output are poorly understood. METHODS We studied the transcriptome of five precursor B cell subsets in individual bone marrow samples from 4 healthy children and 4 adults employing GeneChip® Human Exon 1.0 ST Arrays (Affymetrix®) and TaqMan® Array MicroRNA Cards (Life Technologies™)...

BACKGROUND The current standard of care for relapsed and refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is combination chemotherapy. CASE PRESENTATION We report a case of highly refractory ALL who was treated with blinatumomab. The ALL in this patient relapsed within a month after completion of hyperCVAD regimen and was refractory to high dose mitoxantrone/cytarabine and CLAG regimens. CONCL...

Molybdenum cofactor deficiency is a devastating disease with affected patients displaying the symptoms of a combined deficiency of sulfite oxidase and xanthine dehydrogenase. Because of the extreme lability of the isolated, functional molybdenum cofactor, direct cofactor replacement therapy is not feasible, and a search for stable biosynthetic intermediates was undertaken. From studies of cocul...

Blast cells from 6 of 50 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) displayed intracytoplasmic mu chains in the absence of detectable light chains and surface immunoglobulins. These cells also expressed lalike and common ALL antigens. Terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase was detectable in 2 of 5 cases tested. These blast cells are probably related to early B-cell precursors (pre-B cells)...

The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor E2A is an essential regulator of B lymphocyte lineage commitment and is required to activate the expression of numerous B lineage-specific genes. Studies involving ectopic expression of Id proteins, which inhibit E2A as well as other basic helix-loop-helix proteins such as HEB, suggest additional roles of E2A at later stages of B cell development....

An Australian common brown snake, Pseudonaja textilis, is known to contain highly lethal neurotoxins. Among them, a long-chain alpha-neurotoxin, pseudonajatoxin b, has been identified. In this report, while presenting evidence for the presence of at least four such long-chain alpha-neurotoxins in the venom of P. textilis, we describe the characteristics of both the mRNA and the gene responsible...

DNA methylation is responsible for regulating gene expression and cellular differentiation and for maintaining genomic stability during normal human development. Furthermore, it plays a significant role in the regulation of hematopoiesis. In order to elucidate the influence of DNA methylation during B-cell development, genome-wide DNA methylation status of pro-B, pre-BI, pre-BII, and naïve-B-ce...