Macrophage‐histiocytes in Hodgkin's disease the relation of peanut‐agglutinin‐binding macrophage‐histiocytes to clinicopathologic presentation and course of disease

Abstract

The authors studied the occurrence of peanut agglutinin (PNA)‐binding cells in paraffin‐embedded specimens of 145 patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD). The staining reaction of lymphocytes was consistently negative. A positive staining reaction was observed in two types of cells: macrophagehistiocytes (M‐H), and Reed‐Sternberg (R‐S) cells and their variants. Diffuse or globular cytoplasmic staining was found in M‐H, which was easily distinguished from a unique “cell surface and cytoplasmic” staining pattern of R‐S and related cells. Thus defined, M‐H were numerous in lymphocyte depletion and mixed cellularity, less common in lymphocyte predominance, and least frequent in the nodular sclerosis type. Numerous M‐H correlated with B‐symptoms and a poor response to therapy. Among the asymptomatic patients with localized disease at presentation, the presence of large numbers of M‐H was associated with a high incidence of relapse within 2 years of therapy. These findings suggest that the number of non‐neoplastic M‐H in HD may be an important determinant in the clinical presentation and course of disease. Peanut agglutinin staining may be useful for the detection of M‐H in routine diagnosis and classification of HD, which has not been feasible by conventional methods. Copyright © 1985 American Cancer Society