Identification of aspartame-induced haematopoietic and lymphoid tumours in rats after lifetime treatment.

•Immunohistochemistry (IHC) is an essential tool to confirm and characterize the neoplastic origin of a lesion.•A review of the haematopoietic and lymphoid tissue tumours (HLTs) from the prenatal long-term APM study in rats was performed.•The leukaemogenic and lymphomatogenic effect of APM was confirmed following IHC characterization of HLTs.