Reassessment of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma with a "Nodular" Growth Variant: a Clinicopathologic Study of Follicular, Mantle Cell and Marginal Zone Lymphomas Prospectively Diagnosed with Multiparameter Analyses

Although three subtypes of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), follicular lymphoma (FL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and marginal zone lymphoma (MZL), are now well recognized as independent categories, their biological behavior has not been fully compared. One of the reasons for this may be that subclassification by histological examination alone is often difficult since they all have a common variant of a "nodular" growth pattern and occasionally show similar cytological morphology. Recently, we reviewed patients with FL, MCL and MZL, who were prospectively diagnosed, using multiparameter analyses with unfixed fresh biopsy materials. Of 407 NHL patients, 101 (24.8%) belonged to these three categories and 80 could be followed; FL (n=27), MCL (n=27) and MZL (n=26). Twenty eight cases with diffuse large B-cell (DL-B) lineage lymphoma were selected as control at random. The frequency of the MCL patients with performance status (PS) 2 to 4 (41%) was significantly higher than MZL patients (4%) [P