Lymphoma of the Skin

Abstract

A clinico-pathologic study of lymphomas of the skin included 14 cases of mycosis fungoides, 14 of primary lymphoma and 22 of secondary lymphoma. Patients with mycosis fungoides had a longer duration of history and presented with papules, plaques, erythroderma or generalized dermatitis but not with tumor nodules ab initio. A confident histologic diagnosis required the presence of the mycosis cell, which was usually present in association with a mixed inflammatory cell infiltrate. Another important histologic feature was the presence of invasion of the epidermis by the mycosis cells singly and/or in nests (Pautrier microabscesses). Primary and secondary lymphomas of the skin presented clinically as multiple tumor nodules and histologically as a monomorphic infiltrate of neoplastic cells confined to the dermis and subcutis. A feature which was not adequately documented in a large series was the presence of an associated prominent epithelioid cell reaction in several cases from all 3 groups.