Primary adult T cell leukemia of bone: two patients with primary bone lesion showing monoclonal integration of HTLV-I proviral DNA.

Adult T cell leukemia (ATL), a neoplasm of mature helper T lymphocytes is etiologically associated with human T lymphotropic virus type-I (HTLV-I). ATL cells infiltrate various organs, the lung, skin, central nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, and bone, causing various clinical manifestations. Two unusual cases of ATL, in which lytic bone lesion was the primary site of ATL, are described. One patient had multiple lytic lesions in bones without any involvement of other organs, and the other patient had a bone lesion in the right radius, which disappeared after chemotherapy. In both cases, monoclonal integration of HTLV-I provirus was demonstrated in the genomic DNA from each bone lesion. Although their clinical courses and pathological findings were different, ATL in both patients began as a bone lesion, showing that primary lymphoma of bone can be manifested in ATL cases.