Correlation between histology and immunophenotype in a series of 322 cases of non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma

Abstract

The non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) are a heterogeneous group of lymphoid neoplasms displaying a wide variation in cell morphology, histological patterns, immunological phenotype and prognosis. In this paper we compare the results of phenotypic investigation of 322 tissue biopsies with the histology based on the Kiel classification. Immunological analysis revealed that 81 per cent of these tumours were of B cell origin, 12 per cent of T cell origin and the remaining 7 per cent could not be characterized as representing either cell lineage. This last group included a number of cases which had received a histological diagnosis of true histiocytic lymphoma. The original morphological diagnosis, based on routine haematoxylin and eosion sections correlated with the immunologically determined phenotype in 86 and 93 per cent of the T- and B-cell cases respectively. The B cell tumours were phenotypically heterogenous with respect to immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain and B lymphocyte subset marker expression. IgG was most often found associated with NHL of cb/cc histology and a small subgroup of lymphocytic NHL. IgA expression was uncommon and occurred in combination with IgD and G in three cases and alone in two cases of NHL. The most common immunoglobulin isotype expressed was IgM this isotype occurred with IgD most often in lymphocytic and centrocytic NHL and less often in tumours of cb/cc histology. Whilst greater than 90 per cent of the lymphocytic NHLs expressed the CD5 antigen, between 20 and 75 per cent of B-cell tumours of other histologies also expressed this epitope. The CD10 antigen and the epitope recognized by the monoclonal reagent FMC7 were widely distributed on tumour cells from all histologies. TdT expression commonly regarded as a marker for immature cells was found in one case of follicle centre cell lymphoma. All cases of T cell NHL displayed marked heterogeneity for both pan T and T subset antigens which is significant in terms of the routine diagnosis of T NHL and with regard to the rational classification of node based T NHL. Unlike resting peripheral blood T cells, MHC class II, OKT 10 and CD25 epitopes were expressed reflecting activation of tumour populations.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Diagnostic Value of Immunophenotyping in Low‐grade B‐cell Lymphoma

“…There have been noted 20-S0% of B-cell tumours with histologies other than lymphocytic lymphoma expressing the CD5 antigen (Smith et al, 1989) and a marked heterogeneity within and between major subgroups of B-cell lymphomas (Medeiros et al, 1987: Salter et al, 1988Schuurman et al 1989).…”

A novel Fc-engineered monoclonal antibody to CD37 with enhanced ADCC and high proapoptotic activity for treatment of B-cell malignancies

“…[12][13][14][15] Importantly, strong and homogeneous CD37 expression has been detected on the surface of B-cell leukemia and lymphoma cells. [16][17][18][19] This favorable expression profile led to the exploration of CD37-directed radioimmunotherapy in patients suffering from B-cell lymphoma using the murine CD37 mAb MB-1. 20,21 A CD37-specific small modular immunopharmaceutical (SMIP), an IgG1-like single-chain Ab with a truncated constant region, is in early clinical development for CLL.…”

Phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity of peripheral T-cell lymphoma

“…In our series of 322 node based NHL, peripheral T-cell tumours comprise 6% of all cases and 40% of the T-cell tumours studied (Smith et al, 1988). Thus, the diagnostic difficulty presented by the discordant plienotypic and gene rearrangement data represents a small component of all lymphomas presenting for diagnosis.…”

“…Lymphocytes were isolated from tissue by standard methods (Stevenson et al, 1983) and the viability of the recovered cells was always greater than 95% by trypan blue exclusion. Lymphomas entered into this study were selected on the basis of their histological subtype and were drawn from a large series of lymphomas studied at Southampton (Smith et al, 1988).…”