T cell leukemia--lymphoma in young adults

The clinical, pathologic, immunologic and electron microscopic findings in three cases of young men who had T cell leukemia and lymphoma are presented. The disease in this older age group appears to have the same characteristics as that seen in children. It is an aggressive, rapidly fatal disease with a poor response to the usual chemotherapeutic regimens for acute leukemia or poorly differentiated lymphocytic lymphoma, with which this T cell disorder is frequently grouped. An example of Burkitt's lymphoma in another young man is presented briefly to illustrate the clinical, morphologic and immunologic similarities to and differences from an aggressive B cell lymphoma.