[Scanning electron microscopic examination of 50 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL)].

Fifty cases of NHL were studied by scanning electron microscopy to study the possible differences in the surface morphology of tumor cells between T cell and B cell NHL. Acid naphthyl acetate esterase (ANAE) activity test, the stain of antiserum samples of gamma, mu, alpha, kappa, lambda chains with the peroxidase antiperoxidase immune complex method (PAP method) and classification under light microscope were done for all the cases. It was found that the surface morphology of T cell lymphoma cells differed from that of B cell lymphoma. There were a lot of granular protrusions with a few pseudopodia processes on the surface of B cell lymphoma. But on the surface of T cell lymphoma, there were only more or less wrinkles and less granular protrusions. There were long pseudopodia processes on the surface of tumor cells of B cell lymphoma, particularly on the follicular cleaved cell type. The follicular cleaved cell lymphoma had better prognosis with mean survival time of more than four years. There may be other factors responsible for the long survival time. As compared to the lymphoblastic and polymorphic types, the follicular cleaved cell lymphoma has less euchromatin, less mitosis, slower growth rate and higher cohesiveness between tumor cells. The better prognosis is also closely related to the morphology of the tumor cells. With the aid of long processes, the tumor cells are connected with each other to form follicular structure and the movement of tumor cells is restricted. Hence, infiltration and metastasis of the tumor are less pronounced than the lymphoblastic type and T polymorphic cell type.