PURPOSE: Peripheral T-cell lymphomas(PTCL) show diverse clinical and histological characteristics and should be understood as mixtures of heterogeneous entities. Although many clinical and biological parameters have been proposed for classifying PTCL into different prognostic groups, few parameters have turned out to be appropriate for classification. To investigate the clinical significance of FUO presentation in PTCL, comparisons of clinical parameters were performed using non-FUO presentation as a control. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 66 cases of Korean PTCL were divided into FUO group and non-FUO group according to the presentation and compared with each other. RESULTS: Among 66 patients of PTCL, 19 patients presented with FUO. Compared with non-FUO group, FUO group showed no significant age and sex ratio differences. FUO group showed more advanced stage, worse performance status than non-FUO group. Predominant sites of definite diagnosis were skin, gastrointestinal tract and liver in FUO group and nasal cavity and paranasal sinus in non-FUO group. There were no significant differences between histologic classifications of both groups. Survival analysis revealed significant differences between both groups. FUO group showed significantly shorter survival. Prognostic factor analysis(multivariate) was done with stage, LDH level, performance status, and FUO status. FUO status, stage and performance status were significant determinants of survival, but LDH level proved to have no prognostic implication. CONCLUSION: PTCL with FUO presentation showed such distinct characteristics that the authors propose fever of unknown origin(FUO) as a clinical parameter for classifying PTCL. Further studies are needed to identify biological parameters which characterize PTCL with FUO presentation.
Classification ; Diagnosis ; Fever of Unknown Origin* ; Fever* ; Gastrointestinal Tract ; Humans ; Liver ; Lymphoma* ; Nasal Cavity ; Prognosis ; Sex Ratio ; Skin ; T-Lymphocytes

PURPOSE: To speculate the role of bcl-2 protooncogene in endometrial carcinogenesis by determination of the expression of bcl-2 in endometrial hyperplasia and carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We studied bcl-2 expression by an immunohistochemical method in the paraffin-embedded blocks of 78 patients with endometrial hyperplasia, 64 with simple hyperpasia, 9 with complex hyperplasia and 5 with atypical hyperplasia respectively, and 33 endometrial carcinoma treated at Asan Medical Center from June, 1989 to May, 1997. Intensity of bcl-2 staining was scored on a scale of 0 to 4, calibrated by comparison with stromal lymphocytes, which always received a score of 4. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that bcl-2 was relatively highly expressed in simple (n= 64), complex (n=9) and atypical hyperplasias (n=5) with mean staining scores of 2.95+/-1.09 (Mean+Standard Deviation), 2.78+/-1.20 and 3.60+/-0.89 respectively, which showed no difference among histologic types. In endometrial carcinoma, the expression of bcl-2 was significantly down regulated (mean score=1.76+/-1.35) compared with that of hyperplasia, and did not conelate with FIGO surgical stage. However, grade III tumor showed significantly lower expression that grade I or II tumor. CONCLUSION: Bcl-2 expression is down regulated in endometrial carcinoma than endo- metrial hyperplasia, and correlates with tumor grade, which suggest that bcl-2 expression might be the result of carcinogenesis or bcl-2 plays only an adjunctive role in the endometrial carcinogenesis.
Carcinogenesis ; Chungcheongnam-do ; Endometrial Hyperplasia* ; Endometrial Neoplasms ; Female ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Lymphocytes

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI) is known to play an important role in oncogenesis, but its clinical effect in head and neck cancer has not been reported yet. This study was designed to evaluate the correlation between the pattern of expression in p16 and p21, and tumor progress in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Paraffin-embedded tissue specimens from 54 patients, who were operated for laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma between Dec. 1990 and Apr. 1997, were immunohistochemically stained for p16 and p21 protein. The clinical features from these patients were retrospectively evaluated. RESULTS: In p16, the proportion of early T stage (T1, T2) and early N stage (N0) was relatively larger in the diffusely staining type than in the other staining pattern; but, the correlation between expression of p16 and T N stage was not significant (p=0.07, 0.65). In p21, proportion of early T stage (T1, T2) and early N stage (N0) was relatively larger in the diffusely staining type than in the other staining pattern; and again, the correlation between expression of p21 and T N stage was not significant (p=0.06, 0.10). CONCLUSION: Other factors were suggested to be strongly related to the clinical aspects of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, such as N stage and T stage than p16 and p21. Further study will be needed to understand the role of p16, p21 in oncogenesis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
Carcinogenesis ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* ; Genes, Tumor Suppressor ; Head and Neck Neoplasms ; Humans ; Phosphotransferases ; Retrospective Studies

Peripheral neuroepithelioma (PNE) of soft tissue is a malignant neuroectodermal tumor arising from peripheral(nonautonomic) nerve. It may occur in both children and adults, and are highly aggressive neoplasms that rapidly give rise to metastatic disease and death. We exprienced a case of peripheral neuroepithelioma of soft tissue in the upper arm in a 18-year-old female. Cytologic features revealed small round cells with scanty cytoplasm occurring both singly and in clusters. The clusters frequently tended to form Homer-Wright rosettes. The cells had a round to oval nucleus with fine chromatin and inconspicuous nucleoli in a hemorrhagic background.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Arm ; Biopsy, Fine-Needle* ; Child ; Chromatin ; Cytoplasm ; Female ; Humans ; Neuroectodermal Tumors ; Neuroectodermal Tumors, Primitive, Peripheral*