Immunohistochemical characteristics of Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells in paraffin-embedded tissues

Abstract

Thirty seven cases of Hodgkin's disease (HD) were studied for antibodies against CD15 and CD30 to investigate the distribution of these antibodies in Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells of various subtypes. Of all the cases 67.6% were positive with CD15 and 86.5% with CD30. A strong positive correlation was noted between the immunostaining of CD15 and CD30 antibodies (p<0.005). In regard of histopathologic subtypes, 40% of lymphocyte predominance, diffuse subtype, none of lymphocyte predominance, nodular subtype, 90.9% of nodular sclerosis, 73.3% of mixed cellularity, and 50% of lymphocyte depleted types of HD were immunostained with CD15 antibody. The corresponding figures for CD30 antibody were 60%, 50%, 100%, 93.3%, and 75%, respectively. It is concluded that to faciliate the detection of Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg cells in HD, coexpression ofCD15 and CD30 is reliable.