Cytogenetic and fluorescence in situ hybridization studies have shown the presence of telomeric repeats in translocation present in three patients with hematopoietic malignancies. One had jumping translocations, involving 1q12 and 2q, 16p, and 19q. These sequences were detected by FISH only in derivative chromosomes t(1;16) and t(1;19) in the first patient, and t(1;7) in the second. They were not seen in derivative t(1;2) and t(7;8), respectively. Interstitial telomeric sequences were observed in der(2)t(1;2) in about half of the metaphases in the third patient. The instability of interstitial telomeric DNA repeats in translocations is shown by the present findings. Moreover it supports the hypothesis that the presence of interstitial telomere repeats is not sufficient to make it functional.