Cutaneous manifestations of human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type-1-associated adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma: a single-center, retrospective study.

BACKGROUND

Limited data exist regarding cutaneous involvement of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), particularly in the United States.

OBJECTIVE

We sought to characterize clinical and histopathologic features of ATLL in patients with skin involvement.

METHODS

We retrospectively identified patients with ATLL from a single institution given a diagnosis during a 15-year period (1998-2013). Patients were categorized by the Shimoyama classification and stratified into skin-first, skin-second, and skin-uninvolved courses.

RESULTS

The study population included 17 skin-first, 8 skin-second, and 29 skin-uninvolved cases. Skin-first patients (6 acute, 1 lymphoma, 4 chronic, 6 smoldering) were overwhelmingly of Caribbean origin (94%). They had longer median symptom duration (11.9 vs 1.9 months, P < .001) and overall survival (26.7 vs 10.0 months, P < .001) compared with skin-second/skin-uninvolved patients. Cutaneous lesion morphology at diagnosis included nodulotumoral (35%), multipapular (24%), plaques (24%), patches (12%), and erythroderma (6%). After initial skin biopsy, 14 of 17 received a non-ATLL diagnosis, most commonly mycosis fungoides (47%). Notable histopathologic findings from 43 biopsy specimens included greater than or equal to 20:1 CD4:CD8 ratio (79%), angiocentrism (78%), CD25(+) (71%), large cell morphology (70%), CD30(+) (68%), epidermal infiltration of atypical lymphocytes (67%) forming large Pautrier-like microabscesses (55%), and folliculotropism (65%).

LIMITATIONS: This was a retrospective, single-center, tertiary referral center study with small sample size.

CONCLUSION

Skin-first patients with ATLL in the United States are diagnostically challenging. Familiarity with clinicopathologic features may aid in diagnosis.