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Few large, international series of enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphoma (EATL) have been reported. We studied a cohort of 62 patients with EATL among 1153 patients with peripheral T-cell or natural killer (NK)-cell lymphoma from 22 centers worldwide. The diagnosis was made by a consensus panel of 4 expert hematopathologists using World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Clinical correlations and survival analyses were performed. EATL comprised 5.4% of all lymphomas in the study and was most common in Europe (9.1%), followed by North America (5.8%) and Asia (1.9%). EATL type 1 was more common (66%) than type 2 (34%), and was especially frequent in Europe (79%). A clinical diagnosis of celiac sprue was made in 32.2% of the patients and was associated with both EATL type 1 and type 2. The median overall survival was only 10 months, and the median failure-free survival was only 6 months. The International Prognostic Index (IPI) was not as good a predictor of survival as the Prognostic Index for Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma (PIT). Clinical sprue predicted for adverse survival independently of the PIT. Neither EATL subtype nor other biologic parameters accurately predicted survival. Our study confirms the poor prognosis of patients with EATL and the need for improved treatment options.

Purpose: With improved prognosis for patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL), interest increasingly focuses on high-risk groups such as elderly patients. We thus performed a retrospective analysis using the German Hodgkin's Study Group (GHSG) database to determine clinical risk factors, course of treatment, and outcome in elderly HL patients in comparison with younger adults., Patients and Methods: A total of 4,251 patients included in the GHSG studies HD5 to HD9 were analyzed, of whom 372 (8.8%) were 60 years or older and 3,879 (91.2%) were younger than 60 years. Patient characteristics, treatment results, toxicity, freedom from treatment failure (FFTF), and overall survival (OS) were compared., Results: Elderly patients more often had mixed cellularity subtype, "B" symptoms, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and poorer performance status. Less frequently observed were nodular sclerosis subtype, large mediastinal mass, and bulky disease. Acute toxicity during chemotherapy was generally higher in elderly patients. This was most obvious for severe infections (grade 3 or 4; 15% v 6%) correlating with more severe leukopenia in elderly patients (grade 4; 38% v 23%). As a result, significantly fewer elderly patients received the intended full chemotherapy dose (75% v 91%). The survival analysis showed a significantly poorer treatment outcome for elderly patients in terms of 5-year OS (65% v 90%), FFTF (60% v 80%), and HL-specific FFTF (73% v 82%)., Conclusion: Elderly patients have a poorer risk profile compared with younger HL patients and experience more severe treatment-associated toxicity. Higher mortality during treatment as well as lower dose-intensity are the major factors explaining the poorer overall outcome of elderly HL patients.

Early in 2000 an interlaboratory trial on immunohistochemistry was held in Germany in which 172 pathologists took part. Each pathologist received one H&E stained and five unstained slides of five different tumors to reach a diagnosis based on immunohistochemical stains. Additionally, the diagnosis-independent staining quality was assessed by using a multi-tissue block. Altogether, 828 diagnoses were made, among which 57% (468) were correct. The individual steps of immunohistochemistry (tentative morphological diagnosis, choice of primary antibodies, technical staining quality, conclusions from the diagnosis and rendering a final diagnosis) were assessed independently. Although each of these steps was correlated to the correct final diagnosis, in the multivariate analysis only the tentative diagnosis, choice of primary antibodies and the conclusions drawn from individual stains were independent factors to reach the correct final diagnosis. In the diagnostic part of the interlaboratory trial, the technical quality of the immunostaining was not an independent variable to reach a correct diagnosis. In contrast, the results of the multi-tissue block proved that the immunohistochemical staining quality has to be standardized to reach reproducible results in defining the estrogen receptor expression as a basis for therapeutic decisions.

So far, reproducible histomorphologic and immunological criteria to distinguish clinicopathologic subtypes of blastic peripheral B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (BBCL), especially centroblastic (cb) and immunoblastic (ib) lymphomas, for daily diagnostic use are still lacking. Therefore, we correlated the cytogenetic findings in 126 patients with BBCL with histopathologic diagnoses. Subclassification of cb and ib lymphomas relied on the criteria defined in the updated Kiel classification; these subtypes are also listed in the Revised European-American Lymphoma (REAL) classification and in a preliminary report on the newly established World Health Organization classification, to investigate their clinical significance. Moreover, we performed a multivariate analysis to compare the prognostic significance of cytogenetic findings with the International Index. There were significant differences in the frequency of chromosome aberrations between different BBCL subtypes: t(8;14) was predominantly present in Burkitt's lymphomas, t(14;18) in centroblastic lymphomas, deletions in 8q and 14q, changes of 4q and losses of chromosome 10 in immunoblastic lymphomas; t(11;14) was restricted to blastoid mantle cell lymphomas and associated with a poor prognosis. In cb lymphomas, deletions in 1q42-qter, duplications in 1q23-32, trisomy 5, and changes of 15q were identified as independent prognostic factors. In ib lymphomas, changes of 7q and 8q had stronger impact on survival than the International Index. These findings underline that Burkitt's, cb, ib, and blastoid mantle-cell lymphoma are biologically distinct and clinically relevant entities and that cytogenetic findings can be helpful to subtype BBCL.

In a prospective study of 88 patients seen consecutively with proven or suspected bronchial carcinoma, the validity of x-ray tomography and routine mediastinoscopy was tested for the detection and evaluation of mediastinal lymph node metastases. Positive mediastinum was defined as malignant tissue found in the mediastinum and negative mediastinum as mediastinoscopy with negative results plus a negative intraoperative mediastinal lymph node dissection. Thirty-four patients were eliminated from the analysis because carcinoma was not found or because mediastinal evaluation was incomplete by these criteria. Twenty-eight of the remaining 54 patients had mediastinal metastases. Sensitivity was 67% for tomography and 79% for mediastinoscopy. Specificity was 92% for tomography and 100% for mediastinoscopy. The differences were not significant. Sixty-six of 85 mediastinoscopies were unnecessary or unhelpful in the decision to exclude a patient from surgical intervention. Among 19 patients with lesions presumed to be inoperable based on results of mediastinoscopy (i.e., perinodal metastatic growth suspected by palpation or histologically proven), 14 patients had positive tomographic scans and 1 could not be evaluated radiographically because of right upper lobe atelectasis. We conclude that tomography of the upper mediastinum should be used to select patients for mediastinoscopy.

Wegener's Granulomatosis is a rare disease of unknown etiology, becoming more and more of interest. 18 patients with histologically confirmed Wegener's Granulomatosis are described in this report. In majority the first symptoms were found in the upper respiratory tract. In 80% the biopsy ensuring the diagnosis was made by the otorlaryngologist. Early treatment with cyclophosphamide in combination with corticosteroids can improve the prognosis of this generally lethal disease.