Clinicopathologic and immunogenetic analysis of mucosa-associated lymphoidtissue lymphomas arising in conjunctiva

Purpose: To identify mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) type lymphoma in conjunctival infiltrates. Methods: Clinical, histopathologic, immunophenotypic, and immunogenotypic s tudies were performed on 14 patients with conjunctival lymphoid infiltrates . Surgical biopsy specimens were subjected to histopathologic, immunohistoc hemical, and gene rearrangement analysis. Results: Thirteen of the 14 patients (92.9%) met the diagnostic criteria fo r MALT lymphoma, and the remaining patient showed morphologic features of d iffuse, small lymphocytic lymphoma. Genotypic analysis confirmed immunoglob ulin heavy chain gene rearrangement in all of the 12 patients on whom the a nalysis was performed. Two patients with bilateral lesions exhibited identi cal immunoglobulin rearrangement patterns in each pair of lesions. All pati ents were alive at the last follow-up (mean: 39.9 months). Nine of the 14 p atients were alive without disease, 4 had localized recurrences, and 1 had a residual tumor. Conclusions: These findings indicate that conjunctival lymphoid infiltrates usually have the features of MALT lymphoma with genotypic B lymphocytic mo noclonality and a favorable prognosis. Jpn J Ophthalmol 1999;43:155-161 (C) 1999 Japanese Ophthalmological Society.