The anaplastic variant of centrocytic lymphoma is marked by frequent rearrangements of the bcl‐1 gene and high proliferation indices

Abstract

Ten cases of classic centrocytic lymphoma as defined in the Kiel classification system were investigated for their immunophenotype, their proliferation activity and by means of molecular diagnostics. The findings were compared to those obtained from a group of nine cases of anaplastic centrocytic lymphoma. Both groups showed virtually identical immunohistochemical characteristics with positivity for CD5 and negativity for CD10 and CD23. In the group of anaplastic centrocytic lymphoma, there were considerably higher proliferation indices as documented by staining for the Ki-67 antigen, up to 80% of the tumour cells being positive. Moreover, the cases of anaplastic centrocytic lymphoma had bcl-1 gene rearrangements in eight out of nine cases compared with three out of 10 cases of classic centrocytic lymphoma. DNA analysis was not able to detect bcl-2 gene rearrangement in any case, pointing to a difference compared with lymphomas of germinal centre origin. The coincidence of anaplastic and sometimes blast-like morphology of the tumour cells, high proliferation index and a rearranged bcl-1 gene in nearly all cases of anaplastic centrocytic lymphoma support their classification as high-grade malignant variants of centrocytic lymphoma and suggest a possible role for the bcl-1 locus not only in the origin but also in the progression of centrocytic lymphomas.

Histopathology, cell proliferation indices and clinical outcome in 304 patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL): a clinicopathological study from the European MCL Network

“…Cytology Classical + small cell versus blastic + pleo + variants to show high indices (Lardelli et al, 1990;Ott et al, 1994Ott et al, , 1997Jares et al, 1996;Campo et al, 1999). The present, extensive study of various prospective trials confirmed these data.…”

Blastic Mantle Cell Leukemia: An Unusual Presentation of Blastic Mantle Cell Lymphoma

“…Although the features of blastic or large cell MCL (22)(23)(24) and peripheralizing MCL (13,(25)(26)(27)(28) have each been well described in the literature, cases of blastic MCL presenting with predominant blood and marrow involvement have not been clearly identified to our knowledge. Two previous reports describe primarily leukemic disorders with some similarities to the current patient series presented here.…”

Leukemic Phase of Mantle Cell Lymphoma, Blastoid Variant

“…This translocation has been reported to involve the juxtaposition of the bcl-l gene at 11 q 13 with the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene at 14q32 and results in deregulation of cyclin D1/PRAD1. [5][6][7] We found the t( 11; 14) in 2 of 4 patients. When confronted with a peripheral blood smear containing blast-like cells, the differential diagnosis is broad and includes acute leukemias, chronic lymphoproliferative disorders, and other types of peripheralized lymphoma.…”