Many hematopoietic malignancies have characteristic cytogenetic changes, such as translocations or inversions. It’s important to know about these because they can be used for diagnosis in tough cases, and they often carry a prognostic significance. Here’s a little quiz to refresh your memory. See if you can name the hematologic malignancy associated with each of these cytogenetic changes.

1. t(9;22)
2. t(8;21)
3. t(8;14)
4. Flt-3 mutation
5. t(15;17)
6. translocation involving 11q23
7. inv(16)
8. t(14;18)
9. t(11;14)
10. Jak-2 mutation

Answers:

1. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)
2. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) – M2 (acute myeloid leukemia with maturation)
3. Burkitt lymphoma (or B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL])
4. AML
5. AML – M3 (acute promyelocytic leukemia)
6. AMLs with a monocytic component (like AML-M4 [acute myelomonocytic leukemia], AML-M5A [acute monoblastic leukemia] and AML-M5b [acute promonocytic leukemia])
7. AML-M4
8. Follicular lymphoma
9. Mantle cell lymphoma
10. Polycythemia vera

Note: the cool photo of chromosomes was taken by slushpup and can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/slushpup/152994192/in/set-72157594144061014/.