“…Over the last 15 years there have been reports linking various lymphoreticular malignancies with a malignant histiocytosis-like syndrome (Clark & Dawson 1969, Skarim, Karb & Reynolds 1972, Warnke, Kim & Dorfman 1975, Shreiner 1975, Chen et al 1976, Castoldi et al 1977, Chesney 1977, Lampert, Catovsky & Bergier 1978, Skoog & Feagler 1978, Griffin et al 1978, Karcher, Head & Mullins 1978, Trubowitz, Sobel & David 1980, Starkie 1981. However, with better definition of the cytological features of malignant histiocytosis and description of the virus associated haemophagocytic syndrome (Risdell et al 1979, Manoharan & Catovsky 1981 it has become clear that perhaps the majority of the reported cases are examples of the latter.…”