Singapore Researchers Uncover Deadly New Lymphoma

According to work published in the journal Leukemia, investigators from Singapore have identified a new and extremely deadly type of intestinal lymphoma found among Asian patients.

Researchers from the Singapore Lymphoma Study Group at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) and the National Cancer Center Singapore (NCCS) found 60 cases across Asia and Australia for this study.

This is similar to a subtype of lymphoma that was considered exceedingly rare just a few years ago. Its classification is as an alternate type of enteropathy-associated T-cell lymphoma (EATL Type I). This was not too uncommon in whites and was associated with the autoimmune disorder celiac disease.

However, according to lead author and Associate Professor Tan Soo Yong, Senior Consultant, Department of Pathology at Singapore General Hospital:

We discovered that the intestinal lymphoma commonly seen in Asian patients has no links to celiac disease or EATL Type I found in Caucasians.

This newly discovered disease has an entirely different pathology and is believed to originate from a unique cell type that is found in the intestine.

Singapore researchers are suggesting that the disease undergo re-classification from EATL Type II to Epitheliotropic Intestinal T-cell Lymphoma

Perhaps more important than anything else, these investigators have uncovered a novel biomarker, (megakaryocyte-associated tyrosine kinase, or MATK), and they have established a diagnostic test to find it.

The quicker research is concluded the better, since this is proving to be a very deadly disease, with an average overall survival of no more than about seven months.

Source: Leukemia