Volume 52, Issue 5-6 pp. 348-357

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma in Jujuy, north-west Argentina

Oscar Marin

Oscar Marin

Department of Pathology, Pablo Soria Hospital, Argentina,

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Kazuhisa Hasui

Kazuhisa Hasui

Second Department of Pathology, Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima

Second Department of Anatomy, Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima

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Carlos Remondegui

Carlos Remondegui

Section of Epidemiology, San Roque Hospital, San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina,

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Eiichi Sato

Eiichi Sato

Second Department of Pathology, Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima

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Moe Moe Aye

Moe Moe Aye

Division of Molecular Pathology and Genetic Epidemiology, Center of Chronic Viral Diseases, Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima and

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Norihiro Takenouchi

Norihiro Takenouchi

Division of Molecular Pathology and Genetic Epidemiology, Center of Chronic Viral Diseases, Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima and

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Shuji Izumo

Shuji Izumo

Division of Molecular Pathology and Genetic Epidemiology, Center of Chronic Viral Diseases, Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine, Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima and

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Kazuo Tajima

Kazuo Tajima

Division of Epidemiology, Research Institute, Aichi Prefectural Cancer Center, Nagoya, Japan

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First published: 11 July 2002
Citations: 15
Kazuhisa Hasui, MD, PhD, Second Department of Anatomy, Kagoshima University Faculty of Medicine, Sakuragaoka 8-35-1, Kagoshima 890-8520, Japan. Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) infection is prevalent in native Americans living in the Andes. Some of their malignant lymphomas (ML) show a peculiar histology suggestive of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). To determine whether ML resembling ATLL are indeed ATLL, re-analysis of 34 cases occurring in Jujuy, a province of Argentina, was conducted, concentrating on immunological phenotype, integration of HTLV-1 proviral DNA, expression of HTLV-1 p40Tax and p27Rex, and infection of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). The ML were 22 cases of mature peripheral T-cell and natural killer (NK)-cell neoplasm (mT/NKN), 11 B-cell malignant neoplasms and one Hodgkin's lymphoma. Polymerase chain reaction against the HTLV-1 proviral DNA, using DNA extracted from paraffin sections, indicated integration of the HTLV-1 proviral DNA in three cases of eight mT/NKN. Two other cases of mT/NKN were positive for anti-HTLV-1 antibodies. Expression of p40Tax and p27Rex was detected in all five of these mT/NKN cases associated with HTLV-1. As such, these five mT/NKN were rediagnosed as ATLL. In situ hybridization signals for EBV-encoded small nuclear early region-1 were detected in nine cases of mT/NKN, of which five cases of NK-cell lymphoma were found to have cytoplasmic CD3 expression, a CD56 phenotype and positivity of TIA1. According to the new World Health Organization classification, the mT/NKN class includes five cases of ATLL and five cases of NK-cell lymphomas. The five cases of ATLL were of native American extraction from an HTLV-1-endemic area around Jujuy, north-west Argentina.

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