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Aim: To examine whether peripheral blood methylation is associated with risk of developing mature B-cell neoplasms (MBCNs)., Materials & Methods: We conducted a case-control study nested within a large prospective cohort. Peripheral blood was collected from healthy participants. Cases of MBCN were identified by linkage to cancer registries. Methylation was measured using the Infinium(®) HumanMethylation450., Results: During a median of 10.6-year follow-up, 438 MBCN cases were evaluated. Global hypomethylation was associated with increased risk of MBCN (odds ratio: 2.27, [95% CI: 1.59-3.25]). Within high CpG promoter regions, hypermethylation was associated with increased risk (odds ratio: 1.76 [95% CI: 1.25-2.48]). Promoter hypermethylation was observed in HOXA9 and CDH1 genes., Conclusion: Aberrant global DNA methylation is detectable in peripheral blood collected years before diagnosis and is associated with increased risk of MBCN, suggesting changes to DNA methylation are an early event in MBCN development.

Metachronous/concomitant B-cell neoplasms with distinct morphology are usually considered clonally related. We retrospectively analyzed 4 cases of metachronous/concomitant B-cell neoplasms with discordant light-chain/heavy-chain restrictions. The primary diagnoses included chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL; n = 2), lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma (n = 1), and pediatric follicular lymphoma (FL; n = 1). The respective secondary diagnoses included diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL; n = 2), plasmablastic myeloma, and pediatric FL. The secondary B-cell neoplasm occurred after the primary diagnosis in 3 cases, with the median interval of 120 months (range, 21-216), whereas the remaining 1 case had the 2 neoplasms (CLL/DLBCL) diagnosed concurrently. Histology suggested aggressive transformation in 3 cases and recurrence in 1 case (FL). Nonetheless, 3 cases showed discordant light-chain restrictions between the 2 B-cell neoplasms, whereas in the remaining case (lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma/plasmablastic myeloma), the 2 neoplasms shared κ light-chain restriction but expressed different heavy-chain isotypes (IgM versus IgA). The 2 CLL/DLBCL cases had polymerase chain reaction-based IGH/K gene rearrangement study and amplicon sequence analysis performed, which demonstrated distinct clonal amplicons between the 2 B-cell neoplasms in each case. Concomitant/metachronous B-cell neoplasms may be clonally unrelated, which can be confirmed by immunoglobulin isotype analysis and/or genotypic studies. We advocate analysis of clonal identities in large cell transformation or recurrent disease compared with primary indolent B-cell neoplasm because of a potential difference in prognosis between clonally related and unrelated secondary B-cell neoplasms., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)