Objective To explore the clinicopathological features,immunohistochemical characteristics of gastrointestinal anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL).Methods Clinical manifestations,histology and immunophenotype of three cases diagnosed with gastrointestinal ALCL were analyzed with the review of related literatures.Results The clinical manifestations of gastrointestinal ALCL were of no characteristical changes.The pathological features were pleomorphic in which some bizarre,horseshoed or kidney-shaped nuclei were seen.The characteristic of one of the three cases was shown as sarcomatoid.All cases expressed LCA,CD3,CD4,CDs,CD45Ro,CD30,two out of three cases expressed ALK protein,otherwise they were negative for B cell related antigens,CD15 and muscle,nerve,epithelium originated antigens.Conclusions ALCL of the gastrointestinal tract is extremely rare as one of the lymphatic hematopoietic system tumors.No definite clinical characteristic is seen in the gastrointestinal ALCL with high grade malignancy.It is easily misdiagnosed as carcinomas or other sarcomas.It is necessary to use biopsy to make a pathological diagnosis.

To determine the effect of pre-operative chemotherapy on apoptosis in breast cancer and to evaluate its signif icance as a prcgnostic marker. MethodsPatients with breast cancer were divided into preoperative chemotherapy group (40 cases)and control group (42 cases). Two groups were analyzed for the appearance of apoptosis by using TUNEL method and electron mi croscope in tissue sections. ResultsApoptosis occurred in 92.5 % of preoperative chemotherapy group and in 78.5 % of control group. The apoptotic indexes were 19.37 + 6.49 and 9.26 + 5.04 ( P ＜ 0.01 ) respectively. Low apoptotic index was related to disease-free survival of patients with breast cancer (P ＜ 0.01 ). ConclusionThe preoperative chemotherapy can induce apoptcsis of breast cancer and improve disease-free survival.