The molecular characterisation of peripheral T cell lymphomas

Peripheral T cell lymphomas (PTCL) are aggressive lymphomas with poor outcomes with current treatments. Previous research has been hampered by the use of whole lymph node biopsies which represent a mixture of malignant and non-malignant cells, thus partly obscuring the malignant cells. Here, we used an innovative methodology to isolate and purify the malignant cells, then confirmed the malignant nature of each sample before performing RNA-sequencing to identify critical gene signatures in malignant cells. We demonstrated important signatures regarding the cell-of-origin and a molecular switch for malignant transformation of the two commonest subtypes of PTCLs.