Integrative Analysis of a series of newly diagnosed Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphomas (DLBCLs)

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a clinically and biologically heterogeneous disease. We have characterized recurrent copy number alterations (CNAs) in a large series of primary DLBCLs with HD-SNP arrays and the GISTIC algromithm. We evaluated the associations between transcript abundance and the presence of specific CNAs by obtaining RNA profiles on the majority of the primary DLBCLs and integrating the gene expression profiles with the copy number data. High molecular weight DNA and total RNA were extracted from frozen biopsy specimens of newly diagnosed and previously untreated primary DLBCLs according to IRB-approved protocols. DLBCL diagnoses and > 80% tumor involvement were confirmed by expert hematologists. 180 primary DLBCLs and 53 normal DNA samples were profiled on Affymetrix SNP array 6.0. 169 of these primary DLBCLs were RNA profiled, 78 on Affymetrix U133A+B and 91 on U133plus2 arrays.