Composite primary breast diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and T lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma: report of a case and review of literature

We reported a rare case of composite diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and T lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (T-LBL) in a 46-year-old woman with progressive enlargement of the breast lump. The patient initially sought care at a local hospital with a single left breast lump without any other physical examination findings. Histopathological analysis of which revealed a diffuse infiltration of tumor cells that were rich in cytoplasm with vesicular chromatin and prominent nucleoli. Further analysis of immunohistochemistry showed a cluster of neoplastic cells which express B-cell markers: CD19, CD20 (weak), CD79a, PAX5 and BCL-2, but negative for T-cell markers such as CD2, CD3, CD5 and CD7. PET-CT showed evidence of lymphadenopathy and splenomegaly, which may indicate lymphoma infiltration. Then a biopsy of bone marrow showed typical features of T-LBL. The aberrant terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TDT) and cCD3 positive T-cell population that lack surface CD10 and CD19 were identified by flow cytometric immunophenotyping. Polymerase chain reaction analysis of the T-cell receptor gamma gene and IgH gene revealed a clonal rearrangement and confirming T-cell clonality. Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) revealed a deletion of the P53 gene in these T-neoplastic cells may indicate a bad outcome of such disease. Neither the large B-cells nor T-cells were positive for Epstein-Barr virus encoded RNA.