1. Anaplastic large-cell lymphomas of B-cell phenotype are anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) negative and belong to the spectrum of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas.
- Author
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Haralambieva, Eugenia, Pulford, Karen A. F., Lamant, Laurence, Pileri, Stefano, Roncador, Giovanna, Gatter, Kevin C., Delsol, Georges, and Mason, David Y.
- Subjects
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LYMPHOMAS , *PHENOTYPES - Abstract
There is controversy in the literature as to whether anaplastic large-cell lymphoma of B-cell phenotype is related to the t(2;5)-positive T- or ‘null’ cell lymphoma of the same morphology. We report a study of 24 lymphomas with morphological features of anaplastic large-cell lymphoma which expressed one or more B-cell markers and lacked T-lineage markers. Clinical features were more in keeping with large B-cell lymphoma than with classical t(2;5)-positive anaplastic large-cell lymphoma, and immunostaining for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) protein provided no evidence for the (2;5) translocation (or one of its variants). The staining patterns for CD20 and CD79 were typical of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, CD30 expression was variable, and most cases (15/22) lacked epithelial membrane antigen (EMA). These findings support the view that ‘B-cell anaplastic large-cell lymphoma’ is unrelated to t(2;5)-positive (ALK‐positive) lymphoma, and that it represents a morphological pattern occasionally encountered among diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. By the same reasoning, most tumours diagnosed as ‘ALK‐negative anaplastic large‐cell lymphoma of T‐cell or null phenotype’ probably belong to the spectrum of peripheral T‐cell lymphomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2000
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