ABSTRACT
An 82-year-old woman was admitted with fever and anorexia. Aggravated pancytopenia and liver dysfunction suggested the presence of disseminated intravascular coagulation. The serum ferritin level increased to 9,100 ng/ml. Bone marrow aspiration showed an increase of histiocytes with phagocytosis and a diagnosis of hemophagocytic syndrome was made. Symptomatic therapy was performed because of her deteriorated general condition. She died of multiple organ failure, 32 days after admission. Autopsy revealed swollen lymph nodes with proliferation of large neoplastic cells containing rich cytoplasm and pleomorphic and multi-segmented large nuclei. The immunophenotype of the neoplastic cells was LCA-, CD3-, CD5-, CD 20-, CD79a-, UCHL1-, MT1-, CD15-, p80-. Neoplastic cells were positive for CD30, mainly in Golgi apparati, and also positive for EBV-encoded small nonpolyadenylated RNAs (EBER). This case was diagnosed as anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) associated with hemophagocytic syndrome. It was estimated that Epstein-Barr virus had played an important role in the development of ALCL in the present case.
