CD30-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma in a human T-cell lymphotropic virus-I endemic area

Clinicopathological and cytogenetic studies were performed on specimens from 43 patients with CD30-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). All patients were born and lived in a human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-I endemic area. Twenty-one patients (48.8%) had serum anti-HTLV-I antibody suggesting the presence of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). Seventeen of them showed a clonal integration of complete HTLV-I proviral DNA by the Southern blot hybridization method in materials obtained by biopsy. Their ages ranged from 37 to 81 years (median, 67.0), and they frequently presented with lymphadenopathy (82.4%) and extranodal tumors with (76.5%) as well as with rare leukemic changes (5.9%). Immunohistologically the lymphoma cells in 15 ATL patients showed a T-cell phenotype. In only one patient (5.9%) was there an expression of epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) in most of the lymphoma cells. Cytogenetically aberration of chromosome band 5q35 was not found in seven patients with HTLV-I proviral DNA. The overall median length of survival was 11.9 months for the patients with HTLV-I proviral DNA, indicating a worse prognosis compared with that of the age-matched patients with negative anti-HTLV-I antibody (P < .01). The specimens of the patients with HTLV-I proviral DNA had unique clinicopathological and cytogenetic features. These findings suggested that T-cell ALCL with HTLV-I proviral DNA should be considered to represent the lymphoma type of ATL.