Objective: To investigate the clinicopathologic features of cytotoxic natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphomas of the lymph nodes.
Methods: Clinicopathologic observations and follow up on 5 cases of cytotoxic NK/T-cell lymphomas of the lymph nodes, immunohistochemical staining for CD45RO, CD8, CD56, CD30, CD20, TIA-1 and in situ hybridization for EBER1/2 were performed.
Results: (1) The clinicopathologic features of cytotoxic NK-T-cell lymphomas of the lymph nodes were summarized; (2) The tumor cells were positive for CD45RO in 4 of the 5 cases, in which 3 cases were also positive for CD56. One case was of null cell type. The tumor cells were positive for TIA-1 and EBER1/2 in all 5 cases.
Conclusions: The clinicopathological features and special immunophenotypes of cytotoxic NK/T-cell lymphomas of the lymph nodes were present in all 5 cases. Clinically, this entity tends to be an aggressive process with poor prognosis.