In patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, both flow-cytometry and RQ-PCR are equally suited for MRD assessment as long as a sensitivity of 10<sup>-4</sup> shall be achieved.MRD diagnostics targeting the IGHV gene is complex and requires extensive knowledge and experience because the junctional regions of each lymphoma have to be identified before the patient-specific RQ-PCR assays can be designed for MRD monitoring.
The heterogeneous representation of IGHV genes in HIV-NHL may be related to specific pathways of antigen stimulation, or to differences in host's immune dysregulation and lymphoma histogenesis.
Persisting monoclonal bands for immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region (VH) representing the lymphoma clone have been described in up to 50% of patients in CR.
In three of five patients who had interpretable results, a distinct, monoclonal, VH family-specific band profile was obtained from the cerebral and systemic lymphoma.
To further elucidate the role of antigen selection in the evolution of gastric low-grade MALT-type lymphoma, we analyzed intraclonal variations of the immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable region (Ig VH) genes expressed in three cases of lymphoma.