Br J Haematol. 1998 Sep;102(5):1327-9.

CD20-positive T-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
Takami A, Saito M, Nakao S, Asakura H, Nozue T, Onoe Y, Yachie A, Shiobara S, Matsuda T.
Department of Haematology, Kurobe Municipal Hospital, Toyama, Japan.

Although CD20 is considered to be a representative marker for B lymphocytes, the antigen is weakly expressed on a small subset of normal T lymphocytes. A 60-year-old man developed pancytopenia and hepatosplenomegaly due to clonal proliferation of atypical lymphocytes that were weakly positive for CD20. The leukaemic cells were also positive for T-cell antigens such as CD2, CD3, CD5, CD7, CD8 and T-cell receptor (TCR) Vbeta8 and for activation antigens such as CD38 and HLA-DR, but were negative for CD19, CD21, CD22, CD25. Southern blot analysis revealed rearrangement of the TCR-beta gene and a germline configuration of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene. This is the first report of a case of clonal expansion of CD20dim T lymphocytes.

PMID: 9753064 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]