Pleural biopsies showed diffuse, partially nodular, infiltration by neoplastic lymphocytes. The Panobinostat concentration immunohistochemical analysis of lymphoma cells showed CD20 (−), CD3 (+), CD21 (residual FDC+), Ki67 (30%+), terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT, +), CD99(+), which was consistent with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (Fig. 4). In addition, bone marrow aspirate showed no malignant involvement. Lymphadenopathy in the cervical and axillary regions was suspected to have relevance to nodal metastasis of lymphoblastic lymphoma. Unfortunately, the patient gave up treatment and discharged due to the financial difficulties. He had a very aggressive course of disease and died

only 6 months after diagnosis. T-LBL is a rare type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with an overall incidence of ∼0.1 per 100, 1000 inhabitants/y, and predominantly occur in male adolescents or young adults [5]. A mediastinal mass was present in ∼80% of the patients with 60% having a pleural and/or pericardial effusion [6]. Here we reported an 18-year-old man with mediastinal mass and pleural effusion. The initial cytologic examination of pleural fluid revealed massive lymphocytes,

and some abnormal cells (tumor cell?). MPE was suspected, but the definite diagnosis was unclear then. Forasmuch the MT was performed on the young man in our case by experienced operator, and pleural biopsies of partial pleura was picked. Dependent on selleck screening library the examination of the partial pleura by histological and immunohistochemical methods, T-lymphoblastic lymphoma was diagnosed finally. However, the patient gave up the treatment due to financial difficulties, and died miserably only six months after the diagnosis. Although there are lots of researches about the prognosis of T-LBL, reliable prognostic Cyclin-dependent kinase 3 factors have not been identified. Generally, a poor prognosis has been related to T-phenotype relative to B-cell lineage [7]. Mathilde et al. [8] reported that 7-year overall survival was 64%, and none of the following prognostic factors significantly affected survival with T-LBL: age, sex, presence or absence

of fever or infection, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, mediastinal mass, lymphadenopathy, initial platelet count (>100 × 109), leukocyte count (>30 × 109), LDH level, immunophenotypic subtype. However, Birgit et al. [9] found that 5-year overall survival was 14% for the patient with T-LBL which suffered from disease progression or relapse. The presence of pleural effusion and ≥2 of extranodal involvement were significantly associated with worse overall survival [7]. Meanwhile, Das et al. [10] also found that the presence of an effusion has been linked to a very poor outcome, and emphasized that lymphocyte-rich effusions frequently present diagnostic difficulty in clinical cytology, which was accordance with our case. Due to with both mediastinal mass and pleural effusion, the young man in our case suffered from disease progression and died six months later.