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A series of monoclonal antibodies was used for the characterization of malignant T cells from 21 patients with lymphoblastic lymphoma (LL). The tumor population from these patients showed a marked degree of phenotypic heterogeneity and a proportion (one-third) of patients had tumor cells that did not conform exactly with the cells normally detected in the thymus. However, these cell populations could be related to the early or common or late thymocyte population (about one-third of the patients in each category). This contrast, with the characterization of malignant T cells from 43 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that could be related to either early or common thymocytes, with an exception of two patients categorized as having a tumor population related to late thymocytes. Further phenotypic differences between cells from ALL and LL could be demonstrated by investigation with two additional monoclonal antibodies, A50 and U4. Among patients with malignant T cells related to common thymocyte, 0/12 patients with ALL had cells recognized by A50, where 5/8 patients with LL had A50+ cells. Among patients with early thymocytes, only patients with ALL had cells recognized by U4. In addition, 5 LL patients had cells reactive with J5, a monoclonal antibody recognizing the common ALL antigen (CALLA). Since CALLA was found on cells related to common and late thymocytes, CALLA is neither lineage specific, nor can it be viewed as being peculiar to malignant lymphoid cells arrested at very immature stages of differentiation.
Bernard et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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