MULTIPLE PULMONARY NODULES MANIFESTED IN A PATIENT WITH NK CELL GRANULAR LYMPHOCYTE PROLIFERATIVE DISORDER

An 18-year-old man was admitted to our hospital with high temperature and dyspnea. A chest radiograph revealed the presence of multiple roun d nodules compatible with a metastatic lung cancer. The peripheral whi te blood cell count was 22,000/mm(3) and more than 85 percent were aty pical large lymphocytes with azurophilic granules. He was diagnosed as having natural killer (NK)-cell granular lymphocyte proliferative dis order (NK-GLPD) as the lymphocytes were positive with CD56, a cell sur face marker characteristic for NK cells. The major pathologic finding of the tissue collected from the pulmonary nodules by transbronchial l ung biopsy was infiltration of mostly large granular lymphocytes.