BONE-MARROW DYSPLASIA WITH BASOPHILIC CELLS IN A PATIENT WITH ANGIOCENTRIC LYMPHOMA

We report a 46-year-old man suffering from angiocentric lymphoma of th e skin. On admission, he had atypical cells rich in basophilic granule s in the bone marrow and peripheral blood, in addition to skin eruptio ns and bone marrow dysplasia. Immediately after diagnosis, the patient was treated with multidrug combination chemotherapy. At first, the ch emotherapy markedly relieved the skin eruption and bone marrow dysplas ia, and atypical cells in the bone marrow and peripheral blood disappe ared rapidly. However, the disease gradually became resistant to chemo therapy, resulting in a gradual deterioration of the skin eruption and bone marrow dysplasia, and reappearance of atypical cells. The levels of serum cytokines such as interleukin-4 and interleukin-6, and of so luble interleukin-2 receptor correlated well with the disease states. These results suggest that the lymphoma cells directly or indirectly i nduce the production of these cytokines and that a dysregulated cytoki ne network, which might be caused by lymphoma cells, induces an increa se in atypical cells.