B-cell lymphomas with concurrent IGH-BCL2 and c-MYC rearrangements (so-called "double-hit lymphomas" [DHL]) are a relatively rare, recently described category in the 2008 World Health Organization classification of hematopoietic neoplasms.
Antiapoptotic members of the bcl-2 family have recently been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a hematopoietic neoplasm associated with the BCR/ABL oncogene.
These results suggest that bcl-2 protein is broadly expressed in various hematopoietic neoplasms not restricted in t(14; 18) lymphomas and that germinal center cells may be involved in some arrest of bcl-2 protein expression at the posttranscriptional level.