Molecular characterization of Burkitt lymphoma in the breast or ovary

Abstract

Breast and ovary have been described as rare but typical sites of presentation of Burkitt lymphoma (BL) in females, particularly after puberty. We revised a historic series of 44 lymphomas of the breast or the ovary in women diagnosed between 1973 and 2014 as BL. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was applied to all, and array-based copy number analysis as well as expression profiling to a subset of those cases. Of the 42 cases evaluable for FISH, 19 cases showed an IG-MYC translocation but only 9 of those fulfilled the criteria of the current WHO classification for the diagnosis of BL. Those nine cases resembled BL of other sites with regard to molecular features. Our findings along with literature data suggest that breast and ovarian BL (1) seem to be rarer than hitherto assumed, (2) share typical molecular features with other BL, and (3) predominantly affect women in the fertile age.

Keywords:

• Ovary
• breast
• Burkitt
• lymphoma
• MYC

Acknowledgments

SE is a recipient of a grant from the German Academic exchange service (DAAD). The KinderKrebsInitiative Buchholz Holm-Seppensen is gratefully acknowledged for infrastructural support. We acknowledge the excellent technical assistance of the members of the molecular genetics and molecular cytogenetics laboratories at the Institutes of Human Genetics in Kiel and Ulm, the team of the Lymph Node Registry of Kiel and of the pathology in CHUV, Lausanne.

Author contributions

S.E.: collect the samples, performance of the analyses, drafting of the manuscript. C.L.: review of FISH hybridization, interpretation of data, drafting, correction and approval of manuscript. I.N.: review of FISH hybridization, interpretation of data, correction and approval of manuscript. I.V.: review of the genome wide copy number data, correction, and approval of manuscript. S.B.: review of FISH hybridization, interpretation of data, correction and approval of manuscript. M.S.: review of the histopathological analyses and immunohistochemical staining, interpretation of the data, correction. and approval of manuscript. S.M.A.: review of the histopathological analyses and immunohistochemical staining, interpretation of the data, correction, and approval of manuscript. R.W.: review of the genome wide copy number data, interpretation of data, correction, and approval of manuscript. L.H.: Performance of gene expression profiling using SOM, Correction and approval of manuscript. H.B.: Performance of gene expression profiling using SOM, Correction and approval of manuscript. L.L.: Conception and supervision of the study, histopathological review, correction and approval of manuscript. W.K.: Conception and supervision of the study, histopathological review, correction and approval of manuscript. R.S.: Conception and supervision of the study, drafting of manuscript.

Disclosure statement

Dr. Klapper reports grants from Takeda, Amgen and Regeneron, Dr. Bens from Pfizer and Dr. Siebert from AstraZeneca and Roche outside the submitted work. Drs Siebert and Bens reports grants from German Ministry of Science and Education in the framework of the MMML-MYC-SYS project, during the conduct of the study. The rest of authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the German Ministry of Science and Education in the framework of the MMML-MYC-SYS project (036166B).