Primary Duodenal Follicular Lymphoma Treated With Rituximab Monotherapy and Followed-up for 15 Years

A 41-year-old woman was diagnosed with duodenal follicular lymphoma. She had no other lesions and was assigned to a "watch and wait" policy. Swelling of the inguinal lymph nodes appeared 45 months later, and rituximab monotherapy resulted in complete remission. However, follicular lymphoma recurred in the stomach, rectum and mesenteric and external iliac lymph nodes 81 months after the therapy. The patient received rituximab monotherapy again and has remained in complete remission in the fifteenth year after the initial diagnosis. This case suggests the usefulness of rituximab monotherapy in the long-term management of intestinal follicular lymphoma

Distinct morphologic, phenotypic, and clinical-course characteristics of indolent peripheral T-cell lymphoma

Peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS) consists of a heterogeneous group of lymphomas. Patients. generally show an aggressive clinical course and very poor outcome. Although the 2008 World Health Organization classification of PTCL-NOS includes 3 variants, low-grade lymphoma is not Included. Of 277 PTCL-NOS cases recorded in our consultation files, we examined the clinicopathologic characteristics of 10 patients with T-cell lymphomas composed of small-sized cells with slight nuclear atypia. Eight patients showed extranodal involvement (5 patients, spleen; 3 patients, thyroid), and 5 patients were at clinical stage I or II. Histologically, all samples presented diffuse infiltrate of small lymphoid cells, with few mitotic figures. Immunohistologically, all samples were positive for CD3, and CD:20 Was detected in 5 samples. All samples showed a low Ki-67 labeling index (mean, 1.05%), and 7 samples were positive for central memory T-cell markers. Clonal T-cell receptor gamma chain and/or alpha-beta chain gene rearrangements were detected in all 10 patients. Five patients received chemotherapy, whereas for 3 patients, treatment consisted only of observation following surgical resection of the spleen or thyroid. Nine patients were alive at a median follow-up time of 19.5 months, whereas 1 patient died of an unrelated disease. The present study strongly indicates that T-cell lymphoma with small-sized lymphoma cells and a low Ki-67 labeling index is a distinct variant. Recognition of this novel lymphoma subtype, which should not be defined merely as PTCL-NOS, should be seriously considered