Clonality
Lymphoid cells are different from the other somatic cells in the body as during development, the antigen receptor genes in lymphoid cells undergo somatic gene rearrangement.
Since leukemia and lymphomas originate from the malignant transformation of individual lymphoid cells, all leukemias and lymphomas generally share one or more cell-specific or ‘clonal’ antigen receptor gene rearrangements. Clonality does not always imply malignancy; all results must be interpreted in the context of all other available indicative characteristics. Our tests detect clonal rearrangements and are useful in the characterization and treatment of B- and T-cell malignancies.