Some problems on the histopathological diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's malignant lymphoma -- a proposal of a new type

A new classification for non-Hodgkin's malignant lymphoma is proposed as the one suited for the Lymphomas in Japan, which is to provide a new subtype "pleomorphic" for those more or less rapid-growing lymphomas of peripheral T-cell nature, along with another subtype lymphoblastic, after Nathwani et al. for those of central T-cell nature. The proposal is based on the result of the investigation by the Study Group for Histopathological Diagnosis on Malignant Lymphoma that (1) the presence of a significant number of T-cell lymphomas with peculiar "pleomorphism" is responsible for the very low reproducibility rate of histopathological diagnosis on the diffuse, mixed L&H type of Rappaport classification, and (2) the relative incidence of lymphoms as peripheral T-cell nature including the so-called adult T-cell leukemia is much higher in Japan than in the Western countries.