Immunologic phenotyping of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Egyptian patients

ABSTRACT

Immunologic phenotyping was performed on 117 cases of nodal non- Hodgkin's lymphoma. Both frozen sections and cytopreps were studied. Monoclonal antibodies were used and staining was carried out by the ABC immunoperoxidases technique. The monoclonal antibodies used included OKT11 and LYT3 for pan T lymphocyte, Leu 2a for suppressor T, Leu 3a for helper T, B1 for pan B, kappa and lambda light chains for B subpopulations. Results showed predominance of B cell lymphoma [73.5%], mostly of kappa light chain, T cell lymphomas constituted only 14.5% of cases, while null lymphoma were 12%. There was significant correlation between the different morphologic subtypes of NHL according to the working formulation and their immunologic phenotypes [P <0.001]. The distribution of immunologic subtypes in relation to grades of lymphomas was as follows Grade 1 [B [83.4%], T [8.3%], null [8.3%]]; grade 2 [B [85.2%], T [9.3%], null [5.5%]]; grade 3 [B [51.3%], T [25.6%], null [23.1%]]; denoting predominance of B cell lymphomas in grades 1 and 2, and T and null lymphomas in grade 3