Acute/lymphomatous ATLL has frequent alterations of p15 (20%) and p16 (28-67%), while chronic/smoldering ATLL has fewer abnormalities of p15 (0-13%) and p16 (5-26%).
This confirms the p16-methylated status in Hodgkin's cases described in a single previous study and adds information concerning the p15 gene that was also found to be methylated in this lymphoma subtype.
These results indicate that the rate of alterations in the p15 and p16 genes is low for lymphomas, but loss of p16 and/or p15 may be involved in the development of some lymphomas.