INCIDENCE AND PATTERNS OF BONE-MARROW AND BLOOD INVOLVEMENT BY LYMPHOMA IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE LUKES-COLLINS CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

Pretreatment lymph nodes, bone marrow and blood were examined in 176 cases of non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma. By the criteria of the Lukes and Collins functional-morphological classification, 158 (90%) were B[bone marrow-derived]-cell lymphomas and 17 (10%) were T[thymus-derived]-cell lymphomas. Bone marrow involvement was present in 53% of cases: 51% of B cell types and 65% of T cell types. Marrow involvement was most frequent in small lymphocyte (B) (89%), convoluted lymphocyte (60%) and small cleaved follicular center cell (FCC) lymphomas (55%). The pattern of bone marrow involvement was most frequently focal paratrabecular in B-cell lymphomas and diffuse in T cell lymphomas. Blood involvement was present in 50% of cases with bone marrow lymphoma and generally reflected extensive bone marrow disease. There was a higher incidence of bone marrow and blood involvement in pediatric patients than in adults.