IL-32 Supports the Survival of Malignant T Cells in Cutaneous T-cell Lymphoma.

Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) is a heterogeneous collection of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas derived from T cells that are tropic for the skin. Our understanding of this disease has been hampered by the fact that malignant T cells survive poorly in culture and do not survive well even in sophisticated xenograft models ( Townsend et al., 2016 ). Isolation and culture of T cells from CTCL skin lesions lead to an overgrowth of benign infiltrating T cells and loss of the malignant T-cell clone. It is an inescapable irony that malignant T cells capable of killing patients die in even the most supportive in vitro and in vivo environments. These cells appear to require a survival factor found in the skin but not replicated by in vitro and in vivo murine systems.