DISTINCTIVE CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FEATURES ASSOCIATED WITH REGRESSIVE PRIMARY CD30 POSITIVE CUTANEOUS LYMPHOMAS - ANALYSIS OF 6 CASES

A distinct group of cutaneous lymphomas has been described on the basi s of CD30 antigen expression by at least 75% of the tumoral cells. Whe n confined to the skin, these CD30 positive cutaneous lymphomas seem t o be associated with a better prognosis than CD30 negative counterpart s and spontaneous regression may even occur. We observed a spontaneous ly regressive evolution in 6 out of 9 CD30 positive primary cutaneous large cell-lymphomas diagnosed during a 5-year period. Clinicopatholog ical data of regressive cases were analysed. The mean age: of patients was 56.5 years. They were 3 males and 3 females. Skin lesions were so litary nodule or plaque measuring from 1.5 cm to 11 cm in diameter. Hi stologically, the lesions were classified as pleomorphic, medium and l arge cell (5 cases) or large cell anaplastic lymphoma (1 case) accordi ng; to the updated Kiel classification. Delay for spontaneous regressi on varied from I td 6 months. Three of the 6 patients had cutaneous re lapses, followed by a spontaneous regression. All patients remained di sease-free with an overall median follow-up of 30 months. Histological ly, some distinctive signs such as epidermal pseudo-epitheliomatous hy perplasia, epidermotropism, edema, dermal vascular hyperplasia, seemed to be more frequently associated with spontaneously regressive evolut ion.