Clinicopathological analysis of the patients with natural killer/T cell lymphoma in nasal cavity

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics, differential diagnosis and biological features of natural killer (NK)/T cell lymphoma in nasal cavity. Methods The data of 17 cases of nasal NK/T-cell lymphoma from Department of Pathology in the Affiliated Hospital of Yangzhou University between September 2007 and July 2017 were collected. Pathologic analysis including clinical symptoms, pathomorphism and immunophenotyping was performed, and the literatures were also analyzed. Results The clinical symptoms of the patients with nasal NK/T cell lymphoma were not obvious, which were accompanied by nasal congestion, runny nose, and blood in the runny nose. Pathologic examination showed obvious necrosis and inflammatory background of different levels. There were allotypic lymphocytes in the inflammatory background, nuclear irregular distortion or folding, unapparent nucleoli and visible nuclear fission, tumor cell growth for the center with blood vessels resulting in invasion and damage to blood vessels, in which normal lymphocytes, plasma cells and tissue cells could be seen. CD3, CD43, CD56, TIA-1, granzyme B, perforin and other markers were expressed in the tumor cells, and EB virus in situ hybridization was positive. Conclusions Nasal NK/T cell lymphoma is rare, with high incidence of invasive tumor, high recurrence rate, poor prognosis and easy misdiagnosis, which needs immunohistochemistry for differential diagnosis. Treatment is mainly based on radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Key words: Nasal cavity neoplasms; Lymphoma, extranodal NK-T-cell; Immunohistochemistry