Korean J Intern Med.
1999 Jul;14(2):41-46.
Nasal angiocentric lymphoma with hemophagocytic syndrome
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Internal Medicine, Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- 2Department of Clinical Pathology, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Catholic Cancer Center.
- 3Clinical Research Laboratory of St. Paul's Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
Hemophagocytic syndrome (HS) is a fatal complication of nasal
angiocentric lymphoma (AL) and difficult to distinguish from malignant
histiocyosis. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated HS is frequently observed in
lymphoma of T-cell lineage and EBV is highly associated with nasal AL.
Clinicopathologic features of 10 nasal ALs with HS were reviewed to determine
the clinical significance and the pathogenetic association with EBV. METHODS:
Ten patients of HS were identified from a retrospective analysis of 42 nasal ALs
diagnosed from 1987 to 1996. Immunohistochemical study and in situ hybridization
were performed on the paraffin-embedded tumor specimens obtained from 10
patients. Serologic study of EBV-Ab was performed in 3 available patients.
RESULTS: Five patients had HS as initial manifestation, 3 at the time of relapse
and 2 during the clinical remission of AL. Four patients were treated by
combination chemotherapy (CHOP) and others had only supportive care. The median
survival of all patients with HS was 4.1 months (range 2 days-36.5 months) and
all had fatal outcome regardless of the treatment-modality. All cases were
positive for UCHL1 (CD45RO) and EBV by EBER in situ hybridization. The data of
serologic tests indicated the active EBV infection. CONCLUSIONS: HS is a fatal
complication of nasal AL and has a high association with EBV. Reactivation of
EBV may contribute to HS and further investigation of predictive factors and
effective treatment of HS should be pursued in the future.