Follicular non-Hodgkin lymphomas and minimal residual disease.

Follicular lymphomas constitute 40% of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). Most of them (85%) present the t14:18 translocation with altered expression of BCL2. The lack of clinical prognostic factors able to separate a group of patients with poor outcome have shifted the interest to the assessment of t14:18 as a molecular marker for clinical response. Moreover, the translocation site is being studied as a prognostic variable. New therapeutic modalities aimed to affect BCL2 such as the antiidiotype vaccines or antisense oligonucleotides against BCL2 have motivated great expectancy.