DO TERMINAL DELETIONS OF 11Q23 EXIST - IDENTIFICATION OF UNDETECTED TRANSLOCATIONS WITH FLUORESCENCE IN-SITU HYBRIDIZATION

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was performed on bone marrow or peripheral blood cells thought to contain a del(11)(q23q25) from four patients who had acute leukemia or myelodysplasia. Cells from all patients were shown to contain translocations that involved chromosome 6 in three of them. Our data suggest that a large proportion of presumptive del(11)(q23) or del(11)(q23q25) chromosomes may represent previously unidentified translocations that can be detected by FISH. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.