Application of the BIOMED-2 standardized primer system for the diagnosis of primary gastric B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Primary gastric B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (B-NHL) has a similar morphocytological presentation to severe chronic gastritis, which complicates the pathological diagnosis of this disease. To investigate the practicality and utility of the BIOMED-2 standardized primer system for the diagnosis of primary gastric B-NHL from endoscopic biopsy specimens, we selected 65 cases of archived paraffin-embedded primary gastric B-NHL specimens as well as 27 cases of severe chronic gastritis samples to serve as a negative control group. The positivity rates of immunoglobulin heavy chain (IgH) gene rearrangements detected by the BIOMED-2 standardized primer system for the two groups were 86.4% and 12.0%, respectively, which are significantly different (p < 0.05). Importantly, the combined detection of the five groups of the IgH primer system increased the detection rate of B-NHL. These findings indicate that the BIOMED-2 standardized primer system is suitable for formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens and is valuable as a secondary diagnostic tool for primary gastric B-NHL as well as the differential diagnosis of severe chronic gastritis.