Clinicopathologic Characteristics of T-cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: A Single Institution Experience

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Although the incidence of T-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is higher in Far East Asia than in Western countries, its incidence and clinical course in Korea are not well-defined. Therefore, we assessed the relative frequency and clinical features of T-cell NHL in Korea. METHODS: We performed a retrospetcive analysis of 586 patients with NHL. RESULTS: 101 (17.2%) had T-cell NHL. The most frequent subtypes of T-cell NHL were extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (NASAL), peripheral T-cell lymphoma, unspecified type (PTCL-U), and anaplastic large cell lymphoma, T/null cell, primary systemic type (ALCL). The seven pathological subtypes could be classified into three prognostic subgroups. When patients with the three most frequent subtypes were grouped together, their survival was reflected in the International Prognostic Index (IPI) scores. Univariate analysis of IPI elements and other clinical features showed that clinical stage and extranodal sites were significant predictors of survival. Cox multivariate analysis showed that the number of extranodal sites was the only independent prognostic indicator. CONCLUSIONS: The relative frequency of T-cell NHL seems to be decreasing in Korea, although NASAL remains frequent. Korean patients with ALCL appear to have an unfavorable prognosis. Large-scale studies are warranted for Korean patients with T-cell NHL.

Primary non Hodgkin's lymphomas of gastriointestinal tract a clinico pathological study

This study aims to retrospectively review the pattern of patients with various gastro-intestinal lymphomas seen in King Abdul Aziz Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from June 1990 to June 2002 with a view to determine and analyze various clinical and pathological aspects of this disease. All cases of Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of gastro-intestinal tract received and diagnosed in Histopathology department of King Abdul Aziz Hospital, Jeddah, between June 1990 and June 2002 were retrospectively reviewed and the data was analyzed to determine age gender, ethnicity, clinical presentation, anatomical localization, histological type and Helicobacter pylori status. A total of 47 patients were retrieved for this study, with 85.10% being Saudi nationals. The male to female ratio was 1 : 0.74%. The mean age was 52.44 years. The peak age of onset was in the 6th decade. About 45% of our patients had gastric lymphoma, whereas 20.53% had small bowel lymphoma. Among the total number of patients, 46.81% men had MALT type lymphomas. Helicobacter pylori were positive in all patients with gastric lymphoma. Gastrointestinal lymphomas are frequently seen in patients in Saudi Arabia, with MALT gastric lymphoma being the commonest tumour. The strong association between H. Pylori and gastric lymphoma as an important aetiological factor is emphasized

HLA class II alleles in Japanese patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The distribution of HLA-DRB1 alleles and DQB1 alleles in 30 Japanese patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction with the sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP) method, and the association between the disease and the presence of certain HLA class II alleles was investigated. The frequencies of HLA-DRB1*0803, DRB1*0802 and DRB1*1502 were increased while those of DRB1*1501 and DRB1*0405 were decreased. On the other hand, the incidence of HLA-DQB1 alleles was similar to that in the normal population. However, none of these HLA class II alleles showed significant positive or negative associations with NHL. In addition, when allele frequencies of NHL Japanese patients were compared to Thai patients, only DRB1*0803 was significantly increased in Japanese patients. These results indicate that DRB1*0803 may not contribute to NHL susceptibility in the Japanese population. However, further studies with larger numbers of NHL Japanese patients are needed to confirm our preliminary findings.

Nucleolar organizer regions of lymphomas in Korea

Nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) are loops of DNA which occur in the nucleoli of cells and which possess ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The numbers and/or configurations of NORs have been thought to be related to cellular activities. To assess the applicability of NORs associated protein (Ag-NORs) in the field of diagnostic histopathology, a silver staining was done in paraffin sections of malignant lymphomas, tonsils and reactive lymph nodes and the numbers of Ag-NORs in the nuclei of low-grade and those of high-grade lymphomas were compared. A significant difference was found between the numbers of Ag-NORs in the nuclei of low-grade lymphoma (a mean of 1.3 per nucleus) and those of high-grade lymphomas (a mean of 4.2 to 8.3 per nucleus). The Ag-NORs were often observed in nuclei in areas where nucleoli themselves were not visible in H and E stain. It is suggested that this method would be of great value in the field of tumor histopathology.

Nucleolar organizer regions of lymphomas in Korea

Nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) are loops of DNA which occur in the nucleoli of cells and which possess ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes. The numbers and/or configurations of NORs have been thought to be related to cellular activities. To assess the applicability of NORs associated protein (Ag-NORs) in the field of diagnostic histopathology, a silver staining was done in paraffin sections of malignant lymphomas, tonsils and reactive lymph nodes and the numbers of Ag-NORs in the nuclei of low-grade and those of high-grade lymphomas were compared. A significant difference was found between the numbers of Ag-NORs in the nuclei of low-grade lymphoma (a mean of 1.3 per nucleus) and those of high-grade lymphomas (a mean of 4.2 to 8.3 per nucleus). The Ag-NORs were often observed in nuclei in areas where nucleoli themselves were not visible in H and E stain. It is suggested that this method would be of great value in the field of tumor histopathology.