Abstract
Objectives: To assess the ability of flow cytometry (FC) to detect putative neoplastic T-cell subsets on skin shave biopsy (SSB) specimens from patients with mycosis fungoides (MF) and to study the immunophenotype of skin-infiltrating tumor cells in MF. Methods: SSB specimens from patients with suspected MF were bisected and submitted for both FC and routine histopathology. Six-dimensional gating strategies were applied to identify putative neoplastic cells, independently from their expected immunophenotype. Results: Aberrant T cells were detected by FC in 18 of 33 SBB specimens, of which all had clinicomorphologic features of MF. Of the remaining 15 SSB specimens, six had clinicomorphologic features of MF and nine were diagnosed with benign inflammatory dermatoses. Unexpectedly, CD26 was aberrantly overexpressed in 11 (73%) and lost in three (20%) of 15 SSB specimens from patients with MF where this antigen was evaluated. Other detected aberrancies included CD3 dim- (13/18 [72%]), CD7 dim- (15/18 [83%]), and CD4-/CD8- (3/18 [17%]). Conclusions: FC is capable of identifying putative neoplastic cells on SSB specimens from patients with MF. Bright homogeneous CD26 expression is a common and previously undescribed immunophenotypic aberrancy on MF skin infiltrates.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 785-796 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | American journal of clinical pathology |
Volume | 143 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2015 |
Keywords
- Dermatopathology
- Flow cytometry
- Hematopathology
- Mycosis fungoides
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine