Philadelphia chromosome-negative non-Hodgkin's lymphoma occurring in Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia: A case report and literature review.

The current study reports the case of a patient with Philadelphia chromosome-negative (Ph-) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and chronic phase (CP) Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) that also possessed characteristic enlarged lymph nodes. A lymph node biopsy resulted in the diagnosis of CP-CML, in addition to T-lymphoblastic cell NHL with negative break point cluster/Abelson tyrosine kinase fusion genes in the lymph node of the patient, which was diagnosed as Ph- NHL. A review of the literature was performed in the present study to investigate the genetic differences between Ph- NHL and Ph+ NHL in patients with CML. The median age of patients with NHL and CML was 41 years. The follow-up time of patients with Ph+ NHL was significantly shorter (mean, <6 months) compared to the follow-up time of patients with Ph- NHL (mean, >15 months). Therefore the present study concludes that Ph+ NHL may be more aggressive compared with Ph+ NHL. The present study suggests that additional studies are required to assess the clinical and genetic characteristics of NHL patients with CML.