Genetic characteritzation of plasmablastic lymphoma

Plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) is an aggressive B-cell lymphoma with an immunoblastic/large cell morphology and plasmacytic differentiation. The differential diagnosis with Burkitt lymphoma (BL), plasma cell myeloma (PCM) and some variants of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) may be challenging due to the overlapping morphological, genetic and immunophenotypic features. Furthermore, the profile of chromosomal alterations is not well known. To characterize the genetic and molecular heterogeneity of these tumors, we investigated thirty-four PBL using an integrated approach, including fluorescence in situ hybridization, targeted gene sequencing and copy-number arrays.