T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukaemia with an uncommon clinical and immunological phenotype.

ABSTRACT

A 39-year-old man presented with a rapidly growing unilateral painless nodule on the right cheek. Histopathological examination and peripheral blood analysis both showed a population of T-cell large granular lymphocytes, which were CD1+, CD2+, CD5+, CD7+ and CD16+, with expression of cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen. Further laboratory examination revealed severe neutropaenia, relative lymphocytosis and a clonally rearranged T-cell receptor. The cutaneous manifestation of T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukaemia is very rare. In this particular patient, however, it was instrumental in establishing the diagnosis and may have been enabled by the expression of cutaneous lymphocyte-associated antigen on the cell surface.