BCL2 mutations are frequently found in DLBCL, particularly in the germinal center B-cell (GCB) subtype, and are often located in the flexible loop domain and outside the BCL2-homology domains. These mutations are caused by the somatic hypermutation process.1 The presence of these mutations are strongly correlated with the presence of a translocation between BCL2 and one of the immunoglobulin loci. 2 Although missense mutations may not be under positive selective pressure in the context of lymphomagenesis, some of these mutations may interfere with the function of BCL2 antagonists.3

Mutation tier

Entity Tier Description
BL 2 relevance in BL not firmly established
DLBCL 1 high-confidence DLBCL gene
FL 1 high-confidence FL gene

Mutation incidence

Entity source frequency (%)
BL GAMBL genomes+capture 0.46
BL Thomas cohort 0.00
BL Panea cohort 1.00
DLBCL GAMBL genomes 23.71
DLBCL Schmitz cohort 10.60
DLBCL Reddy cohort 12.90
DLBCL Chapuy cohort 15.80
FL GAMBL genomes 50.35

Mutation pattern

Entity aSHM Significant selection dN/dS (missense) dN/dS (nonsense)
BL Yes No 0.000 0
DLBCL Yes Yes 2.645 0
FL Yes No 1.197 0

aSHM regions

chr_name hg19_start hg19_end region regulatory_comment
chr18 60796984 60814103 intron strong_enhancer
chr18 60982728 60988342 TSS active_promoter

## BCL2 Hotspots

Chromosome Coordinate (hg19) ref>alt HGVSp
chr18 60985854 T>C M16V
chr18 60985854 T>A M16L
chr18 60985853 A>T M16K
chr18 60985852 C>T M16I
chr18 60985849 C>G K17N
chr18 60985842 G>A H20Y
chr18 60985840 A>C H20Q
chr18 60985838 T>G Y21S
chr18 60985835 T>C K22R
chr18 60985834 CT>TC K22R

View coding variants in ProteinPaint hg19 or hg38

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View all variants in GenomePaint hg19 or hg38

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References

  1. Schuetz JM, Johnson NA, Morin RD, Scott DW, Tan K, Ben-Nierah S, Boyle M, Slack GW, Marra MA, Connors JM, Brooks-Wilson AR, Gascoyne RD. BCL2 mutations in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Leukemia. 2012 Jun;26(6):1383-90. doi: 10.1038/leu.2011.378. Epub 2011 Dec 22. PMID: 22189900.
  2. Hilton L et al. Motive and Opportunity: MYC rearrangements in high-grade B-cell lymphoma with MYC and BCL2 rearrangements-an LLMPP study. Blood. 2024. Epub May 3.
  3. Singh K, Briggs JM. Functional Implications of the spectrum of BCL2 mutations in Lymphoma. Mutat Res Rev Mutat Res. 2016 Jul-Sep;769:1-18. doi: 10.1016/j.mrrev.2016.06.001. Epub 2016 Jun 16. PMID: 27543313.