H-RAS 1 Minisatellite Rare Alleles: A Genetic Susceptibility and Prognostic Factor for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Extract

The dramatic rise in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) incidence and mortality throughout the world (1,2) has prompted investigators to search for biomarkers that might indicate an increased predisposition for NHL development. Moreover, although combination chemotherapy has improved the outcome of patients with intermediate- and highgrade NHL (3,4), a substantial fraction of these patients still achieve only a partial remission and/or will ultimately relapse. If such patients could be identified at diagnosis by means of new prognostic markers, they might benefit from strategies other than conventional chemotherapy.

The H-RAS 1 proto-oncogene has an associated hypervariable minisatellite that is believed to be capable of influencing H-RAS 1 gene transcription (5,6). Rare alleles of this minisatellite, H-RAS 1 VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats), have been associated with a predisposition to acute leukemia (7) and carcinomas of the lung (8–10), testis (11), breast (7,12), colorectum (7), and urinary bladder (7); however, associations with clinical data are not available in any of these studies.