title: The spectrum of T-cell and natural killer/T-cell neoplasms with leukaemic presentation in a single institution in Taiwan.
abstract: T cell and natural killer (NK)/T-cell neoplasms are rare and may occasionally present as leukaemia. We retrospectively searched T cell and NK/T-cell tumours in a single institution in Taiwan from January 2000 to December 2009 and identified 137 (19.1%) patients with T cell and NK/T-cell tumours among 718 patients with lymphoid neoplasms. Among these 137 patients, 18 (13.1%) presented with leukaemia including T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukaemia (T-LBL), T-cell prolymphocytic leukaemia, aggressive NK-cell leukaemia, adult T-cell lymphoma/leukaemia (ATLL), T-cell large granular lymphocytic (T-LGL) leukaemia and unspecified peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Cases with concurrent lymphoma, higher absolute leukaemic cell counts and elevated lactate dehydrogenase level carried a poorer prognosis. The survival was dichotomous, with a very poor prognosis for patients with T-LBL, T-cell prolymphocytic leukaemia, aggressive NK-cell leukaemia, ATLL in acute phase and unspecified peripheral T-cell lymphoma, while those with T-LGL leukaemia and ATLL in chronic phase had a favourable outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Chi-Mei Medical Centre, Tainan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S-T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Y-C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: S-Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.forename: C-L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: J-S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: S-S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Chuang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000473:pathology*; D007938:Leukemia / Q000473:pathology*; D016399:Lymphoma, T-Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D013624:Taiwan