Haema 2010; 1(1): 11-20
Flora N. Kontopidou
2nd Department of Internal Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Mature T-cell lymphomas comprises a heterogeneous group of hematological tumors which originate from post-thymic T-cells, and constitute less than 15% of all non-Hodgkins lymphomas (NHLs) in adults. Because NK-cells are closely related and share some immunophenotypic and functional properties with T-cells, mature T-cells and NK-cells neoplasms are considered together in the WHO classification. The study of these tumors is difficult mainly because of their rarity. Immunophenotyping significantly improves the accuracy of the diagnosis, however in general the phenotypes of peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) are heterogeneous and for the most T-cell neoplasms is not entirely disease specific. Flow cytomety analysis of T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire proved to be useful for investigating T-cell clonality.