Disappearance of genetic material allows tumor cells to grow
Thursday, August 4, 2011 - 08:30
in Health & Medicine
Malignant Sézary syndrome is characterized by the reproduction of a special type of white blood cells in the skin of male and female patients. In contrast to most other skin lymphomas, patients with Sézary syndrome manifest not only skin contamination but also contamination of blood and lymph nodes by degenerate T cells even at the onset of the disease. The researchers investigated highly purified tumor cells from patients with Sézary syndrome using modern, high-resolution genetic procedures (the so-called array comparative genomic hybridization technique) for hitherto unknown genetic changes. In doing so they identified areas in the genotype of these tumor cells that have become lost in many of the patients examined.