[Normal immune function in centroblastic-centrocytic and centroblastic lymphoma].
We tested in vitro lymphocyte reactivity using 5 mitogens and 9 antigens, measured lymphocyte and lymphocyte subpopulation counts, granulocyte chemotaxis and adherence in 10 patients with centroblastic-centrocytic lymphoma (CB-CC), 7 patients with centroblastoma (CB) and 88 healthy controls. The control group could be divided into 3 clusters with significantly different lymphocyte reactivity by means of cluster and discrimination analysis (BMDP2N): 21 high-, 18 medium- and 49 low responders. Comparing lymphocyte reactivity of CB-CC and CB patients to each of the 3 immunofunctional different control groups yielded the surprising result that both malignant lymphomas are equivalent to the low responding control group and show a low, but still normal in vitro immune function.