Extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma (ENKTL), nasal type, may be of NK or T-cell origin; however, the proportion of T-ENKTLs and whether they are of αβ or γδ type remains uncertain. To elucidate the cell of origin and detailed phenotype of ENKTL and assess any clinicopathologic associations, 67 cases of ENKTL from Thailand were investigated, together with 5 γδ enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphomas (EATLs) for comparison. In all, 70% of the ENKTL were T-cell receptor (TCR) β,γ and, in cases tested, δ negative (presumptive NK origin); 5% were TCR γδ, 3% were TCR αβ, 1% were TCR αβ/γδ, and 21% were indeterminate. Out of 17 presumptive NK-ENKTLs tested, 3 had clonal TCR rearrangements. All cases were EBV and TIA-1; >85% were positive for CD3, CD2, granzyme B, pSTAT3, and Lsk/MATK; and all were CD16. Presumptive NK-ENKTLs had significantly more frequent CD56 (83% vs. 33%) and CXCL13 (59% vs. 0%) but less frequent PD-1 (0% vs. 40%) compared with T-ENKTLs. Of the NK-ENKTLs, 38% were Oct-2 compared with 0% of T-ENKTLs, and 54% were IRF4/MUM1 compared with 20% of T-ENKTLs. Only αβ T-ENKTLs were CD5. Intestinal ENKTLs were EBV and had significantly more frequent CD30, pSTAT3, and IRF4/MUM1 expression but less frequent CD16 compared with γδ EATL. Significant adverse prognostic indicators included a primary non-upper aerodigestive tract site, high stage, bone marrow involvement, International Prognostic Index ≥2, lack of radiotherapy, Ki67 >40%, and CD25 expression. The upper aerodigestive tract ENKTLs of T-cell origin compared with those of presumptive NK origin showed a trend for better survival. Thus, at least 11% of evaluable ENKTLs are of T-cell origin. Although T-ENKTLs have phenotypic and some possible clinical differences, they share many similarities with ENKTLs that lack TCR expression and are distinct from intestinal γδ EATL.

ObjectiveThe purpose was to present the demographic data, clinical presentation, and treatment options, and to evaluate prognosis, for periocular and orbital amyloidosis in patients at the Songklanagarind Hospital, Thailand.MethodThis was a retrospective study that reviewed the clinical records of six patients who were diagnosed with periocular and orbital amyloidosis between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2011.ResultsThe series included six patients (five female and one male). The mean age was 39.7 years (range 15–79 years). There were five cases of unilateral lesion and one case of bilateral lesion. The most common symptom was a mass lesion (83.3%), followed by irritation (66.7%), bloody tears (16.7%), epiphora (16.7%), eye pain (16.7%), and ptosis (16.7%). Five cases had periocular involvement and one case had orbital involvement. Five cases were investigated to rule out systemic amyloidosis, and no systemic involvement was found in these cases. The median duration of symptoms was 6 months, but the mean was 31 months. The main treatment option was surgical excision. The mean follow-up time was 41 months. There was disease progression in 20% of cases after definitive treatment.ConclusionPeriocular and orbital amyloidosis presented with a variety of symptoms, depending on the location of the disease. A mass lesion was the most common symptom. The intent of the treatment modalities was to spare function.

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Systemic reports on the descriptive epidemiology of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) from Southeast Asia are scarce. A nationwide multi-institutional registry was conducted to compare the histopathology, clinical features, and survival of Thai adult patients with NHL using large registries, especially those from Far East Asia (FEA). Using a web-based registry system, 13 major medical centers from the 4 geographic regions of Thailand prospectively collected, from 2007 to 2014, the diagnostic pathology, according to the World Health Organization classification, 2008, clinical features and survival of 4056 patients who were newly diagnosed with NHL. The median age of the patients was 56 years (range, 16-99 years). The male-to-female ratio was 1.3:1. From the total of 4056 patients, T/NK-cell lymphoma (TNKCL) accounted for 12.6% of cases, and 5.1% had human immunodeficiency virus-associated lymphoma. The four leading histological subtypes were diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (58.1%); follicular lymphoma (5.6%); extranodal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (5.2%); and peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (4.0%). With a median follow-up duration of 46.1 months, the median overall survival of B-cell NHL was significantly longer than that of patients with TNKCL (76.5 vs 28.8 months, P = .0001). Compared to FEA, the Thai registry had an approximately one-half lower relative frequency of TNKCL; the prevalence of extranodal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma was much lower than in Korea, and the frequency of extranodal TNKCL, nasal type, was strikingly low compared to China. It is concluded that while the median age of Thai patients with NHL was approximately a decade younger than for Caucasians, the long-term survival rates for most histological subtypes were comparable. While the histological distribution generally complied with the characteristic Asian features, some differences from FEA were observed.

Biliary atresia (BA) is the most severe form of obstructive cholangiopathy occurring in infants. Definitive diagnosis of BA usually relies on operative findings together with supporting pathological patterns found in the extrahepatic bile duct. In infancy, overlapping clinical patterns of cholestasis can be found in other diseases including biliary hypoplasia and progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis. In addition, BA has been reported as a phenotype in some rare genetic syndromes. Unlike BA, other cholangiopathic phenotypes have their own established genetic markers. In this study, we used these markers to look for other cholestasis entities in cases diagnosed with BA. DNA from 20 cases of BA, diagnosed by operative findings and histopathology, were subjected to a study of 19 genes associated with infantile cholestasis syndromes, using whole exome sequencing. Variant selection focused on those with allele frequencies in dbSNP150 of less than 0.01. All selected variants were verified by polymerase chain reaction-direct sequencing. Of the 20 cases studied, 13 rare variants were detected in 9 genes: 4 in (Alagille syndrome), 2 in (progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis [PFIC] type 6), and one each in (Dubin-Johnson syndrome), (PFIC type 2), (Crigler-Najjar syndrome), (Kabuki syndrome), (Mitchell-Riley syndrome), (Fanconi anemia), and (Zimmermann-Laband syndrome). Genetic lesions associated with various cholestatic syndromes detected in cases diagnosed with BA raised the hypothesis that severe inflammatory cholangiopathy in BA may not be a distinct disease entity, but a shared pathology among several infantile cholestatic syndromes.