Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma: report of two cases

Adult T-cell leukemia/ lymphoma is a lymphoproliferative disorder of mature T lymphocytes associated with infection with human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type I ( HTLV-I). Adult T- cell leukemia/ lymphoma is characterized by clinical and laboratory polymorphism that allows it to be classified into four distinct subgroups: smoldering, chronic, acute and lymphomatous types. We present here two cases of adult T- cell leukemia/ lymphoma, respectively in the acute and lymphomatous forms of the disease. Case 1 was a 35-year-old woman who presented abdominal distension accompanied by hepatosplenomegaly, adenomegaly, skin lesions, positivity for anti- HTLV-I antibodies and leukocytosis with the presence of flower cells. Case 2 was a 38- year- old man who was admitted with generalized lymphadenomegaly, positivity for anti- HTLV-I antibodies, hypercalcemia and osteolytic lesions. In this paper, we correlate the clinical- laboratory findings of these two cases with data in the literature.