Morphologic marker for the diagnosis of lymphoblastic lymphoma
Verma, R.N.; Banerjee, A.K.; Jaiprakash, M.P.
Indian Journal of Cancer 22(4): 253-260
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-509X PMID: 3843090 Document Number: 257362
Lymph node specimens from thirty seven cases, of which three were histologically proved lymphoblastic lymphomas and 34 were poorly differentiated lymphocytic lymphomas, in the age group 2 to 25 years, have been studied by light and electromicroscopy. Eight cases met the criteria of lymphoblastic lymphoma and their clinical and laboratory findings were reviewed. They were in the age group of 4 to 21 years (mean age 13.5 years). Six out of eight (75%) cases had shown mediastinal involvement. Splenomegaly was present in 5 out of 8 cases. At the initial examinations, 4 cases had shown minimal bone marrow infiltration, while none of the had leukaemic blood picture. During their follow-up, within six months, 7 out of 8 developed leukaemic blood picture, with involvement of bone marrow in all the 8 cases. Survival period was 6 to 8 months. On histological examinations, neoplastic cells were convoluted and non-convoluted with dispersed chromatin in 3 cases and clumped chromatin in 5 cases (diagnosed as poorly differentiated lymphocytic lymphoma). Light microscopy of semithin sections had improved the observations on nuclear characteristics-nuclear shape and chromatin dispersal, thus 5 cases with clumped chromatin of neoplastic cells on paraffin sections, were found to be prolymphocytes with fine clumping of chromatin. Electronmicroscopy had in addition demonstrated the reduplication of nuclear membranes, which is a non-specific but important marker in the study of morphology in addition to the chromatin dispersal pattern.