Squamous-cell carcinoma of the anus with high intratumoral lymphocytosis and its clinical implications.
BACKGROUND
It has been claimed that patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the anal canal (SCCAC) showing intraepithelial lymphocytes have a poor prognosis.


METHODS
The histological sections from 277 consecutive SCCAC were reviewed. Cases having a priori a high number of tumoral-intraepithelial lymphocytes (HTIL) were selected. The remaining cases showed only a few to none tumoral-intraepithelial lymphocytes.


RESULTS
Eight patients (all females) representing 3% of the 277 SCCAC had HTIL. All these 8 patients with SCCAC/HTIL had clinical stage II and III while these stages comprised 83% of the remaining SCCAC cases.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite the 8 SCCAC/HTIL patients having a more advanced clinical stage than the remaining 269 SCCAC patients, these 8 patients had longer survival. Between 5 and 15 years follow-up, all SCCAC/HTIL patients had survived, whereas during the same time interval 28 (10.4%) of the SCCAC patients without HTIL had died of their tumor.
Rubio
Carlos A
CA
Department of Pathology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Carlos.Rubio@ki.se
Nilsson
Per J
PJ