title: Primary intestinal intraepithelial natural killer-like T-cell lymphoma: case report of a distinct clinicopathologic entity.
abstract: Intestinal T-cell lymphoma is a heterogenous group. These tumors differ in their association with enteropathy, intraepithelial or nonintraepithelial origin, primary or secondary involvement, and T-cell or natural killer-like T-cell immunophenotype. There are also nonneoplastic conditions, such as celiac disease, refractory sprue, and reactive T-cell infiltration that mimic intestinal T-cell lymphoma. Therefore, the differential diagnosis requires extensive morphologic, immunophenotypic, and molecular genetic studies. A subset of primary intestinal intraepithelial T-cell lymphoma has emerged in recent years that is distinguished from enteropathy-type T-cell lymphoma in terms of clinical presentation (nonenteropathic), morphology (monomorphic small to medium-sized cells), immunophenotype (CD3(-)CD8(+)CD56(+)), and cytogenetics. We report such a case with a unique immunophenotype (CD3(-), cytoplasmic CD3(+), CD4(-), CD8(+), CD5(-), CD7(+), CD16(-), CD56(+), CD57(-), CD103(+), T-cell intracellular antigen 1(+), and betaF1(+)) that is comparable to that of a newly identified subset of intraepithelial T cells. The tumor progressed rapidly and the patient died within 6 months after the onset of the disease. We recommend a large monoclonal antibody panel for the differential diagnosis of this heterogeneous group of T-cell lymphoma.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO 80220, USA.
authors.forename: Talia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Muram-Zborovski
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Loeb
authors.forename: Tsieh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000032:analysis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000175:diagnosis; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D007414:Intestinal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D016399:Lymphoma, T-Cell / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor