Peripheral T-cell lymphoma in a patient with acquired immune deficiency syndrome

A case of pulmonary T-cell lymphoma in an Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patient is presented. Morphologically, it belonged to the large cell, immunoblastic category of the Working Formulation and demonstrated a helper/inducer phenotype. Clinically there was no association with manifestations of human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-I related lymphoma and the patient was seronegative for HTLV-I and HTLV-II antibodies. High-grade B-cell lymphomas occur with an increased frequency in patients with AIDS but the occurrence of a peripheral T-cell lymphoma in AIDS has not been documented before. The case is discussed in the context of current concepts of AIDS-related lymphomagenesis.