We analyzed 108 cases of non-CLL non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) associated with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) (+/- pure red cell aplasia (PRCA)) or Evans' syndrome. The analysis was based on cases reported in the literature, which were retrieved by means of Pubmed and Medline searches and of an original series of 121 patients with NHL as well as reference lists of papers in the field. The number of cases in various NHL subtypes was small (n = 6-25). Nevertheless, interesting and sometimes unexpected differences in sex prevalence, temporal relationship between onset of lymphoma and AIHA, stage of lymphoma, relative frequency of warm antibody-AIHA (WA-AIHA) and cold antibody (CA-AIHA), association with PRCA and response of AIHA to treatments were noted for various lymphoma entities. WA-AIHA was more frequent in B-cell lymphomas, while CA-AIHA and PRCA predominantly occurred in T-cell lymphomas. Anti-lymphoma treatment seemed to be more effective against AIHA than conventional therapy with steroids or immunoglobulin. Although generated by a literature survey, this compilation of data indicates a complex relation of lymphoma and AIHA and warrants more attention and specific studies.

Autoimmune thrombocytopenia is a common immune-hematologic complication in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and may complicate the treatment. We analyzed an original series from our institute as well as published cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (excluding chronic lymphocytic leukemia) associated with autoimmune thrombocytopenia with regard to demographic factors, prevalence in nonHodgkin's lymphoma subtypes and treatment outcome. The male/female ratio is 1.75. Half of the cases occurred prior to diagnosis of lymphoma. Chemotherapy is the best treatment in many non-Hodgkin's lymphomas patients with autoimmune thrombocytopenia compared with standard treatment of autoimmune thrombocytopenia. Splenectomy is effective in splenic marginal zone lymphoma. Autoimmune thrombocytopenia in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas is potentially life-threatening and difficult to treat.

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Design: Forty-five patients with SCCT were studied by immunohistochemistry to evaluate expression of EGFR, p-Akt and p-NF-κB. EGFR staining was performed using EGFR pharmDx kit on a Dako Autostainer. p-Akt and p-NF-κB were stained using a semi-automatic method (manual phospho-antibody incubation overnight, followed by automatic staining using a Dako autostainer). Results for SCCT were compared with those for associated high grade dysplasia (HGD) and adjacent normal appearing epithelium. In addition, tonsillar epithelium from non-neoplastic specimens of age-matched patients was also stained for the same markers. Results: In both HGD and SCCT, all three markers were overexpressed, when compared to those in the adjacent normal epithelium and the normal control tonsillar epithelium. When markers from SCCT were correlated with survival status, only p-NF-κB was a statistically significant predictor of poor survival (p=0.047). No markers in SCCT were significantly related to rate of recurrence. When analyzing marker scores from HGD tissue, both p-Akt (p=0.043) and p-NF-κB (p=0.006) were related to poor survival. Additionally, p-NF-kB from HGD tissue was related to rate of recurrence (p=0.049). Conclusion: p-NF-κB, overexpressed in HGD and SCCT, is associated with worse prognosis in terms of rate of recurrence and poor survival. This significant finding in patients with SCCT suggests that p-NF-κB represents a potential therapeutic target in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Background: In non-neoplastic T-cells, T-cell receptor (TCR) engagement induces activation of a cascade of membrane-associated and cytoplasmic kinases leading to widespread transcriptional changes that support cell survival and proliferation. The role of this important growth pathway in promoting T-cell tumors has not been well established. Design: Using phosphospecific antibodies as markers of kinase activation, we examined the expression and function of TCR-associated tyrosine kinases Lck, Syk and ZAP-70 as well as downstream Akt kinase in a wide range of T-cell neoplasms (n=158) and T-cell tumor lines (n=3). We evaluated the functional upregulation and expression of Akt and its target forkhead after TCR ligation. We examined the effect of blocking the proximal TCR signaling pathway on the expression/activation of Lck, Akt, and LAT using rosmarinic acid, a putative inhibitor of the TCR-associated kinase, Lck. Results: Nearly half (48%) of primary peripheral T-cell tumor samples showed constitutive activation of the TCR-associated kinases and downstream Akt, whereas most (57%) anaplastic large cell lymphomas showed absence of activated TCR-pathway components and much lower levels of Akt activation. Activation of the TCR-associated kinases and Akt in these tumors appeared to be independent of the presence or absence of surface TCR-CD3 complex suggesting a non-canonical mechanism of activation. These results were paralleled by in vitro stimulation studies in which some primary T-cell tumors and cell lines showed activation of TCR-associat...

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