Trial Information

Expression of the Genome in Lymphoid Malignancies

Current diagnosis of the lymphoid malignancies relies upon the morphological appearance of
the cancer cells supplemented by a few molecular markers. Within a diagnostic category, the
clinical courses and responses of patients to therapy are variable, suggesting that the
existing diagnostic categories may harbor more than one disease entity. Recent genomic
technologies allow a comprehensive molecular analysis of the expression of the genome in
cancer cells. DNA microarray analysis of gene expression in lymphomas revealed distinct
molecular subtypes of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and these new molecularly-defined
lymphoma subtypes had divergent clinical outcomes. To extend our genomic analysis to all
lymphoid malignancies, we have formed a consortium of cooperating institutions termed the
Lymphoma/Leukemia Molecular Profiling Project (LLMPP). The clinical centers participating in
the LLMPP will send lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma samples to the NCI for gene
expression profiling, array-based comparative genomic hybridization and cancer gene
resequencing. Clinical data will also be sent for the patients in this study for the purpose
of correlating gene expression measurements with clinical outcome. The goals of this effort
are to define new molecular diagnostic categories in these diseases that are clinically
relevant and to gain new insight into the molecular pathways that are active in these
malignancies. The home institutions providing clinical data and tissue samples have obtained
local approval by their clinical research committees for this study. No new patients will be
enrolled or biopsied for this study.