Objective: To explore the clinicopathologic features and diagnostic criteria of hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma (HSTCL).

Methods: Three cases of HSTCL were searched for morphology, immunophenotypings, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in situ hybridization and T-cell receptorgamma (TCRgamma) gene rearrangement.

Results: In the bone marrow, the infiltrative pattern of tumour cells was interstitial and sinusoidal infiltration in one caseìwhile the other two cases showed diffuse infiltration. In the liver of one case and the spleen of another case, tumour cells respectively showed sinusoidal infiltration. The immunophenotyping: three cases showed strongly positive for CD3 and TIA-1, but negative for Granzyme B, CD56 and TCRbeta. EBV in situ hybridization was not detected in all the cases. TCRgamma monoclonal rearrangements were detected in two cases.

Conclusions: HSTCL is a rare entity which is classified into peripheral T cell lymphomas. And it is regarded as a subset of unactived cytotoxic T-cell lymphomas. The negative results of EBV in situ hybridization and the presentation of TCRgamma gene monoclonal rearrangements may be helpful in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of HSTCL. These three cases showed similar characters to those of international cases reported.