Pitfalls in the diagnosis of B-cell lymphomas

Abstract

Lymphoma diagnosis is based on the correlation of clinical, morphological, immunophenotypical and genetic features. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for different clinicopathological entities are defined, lymphoma diagnosis is one of the most difficult tasks in histopathology. The most common mistakes include: 1) errors in differentiation between reactive changes and lymphomas; 2) incorrect classification of the various types of lymphomas; 3) incorrect interpretation of lymphoma immunophenotype; 4) difficulties in clonality assessment in molecular studies. Accurate diagnosis and classification of difficult cases requires the cooperation of the clinician, pathologist and molecular biologist. The aim of this article is to point to clinicians and pathologist the most common causes of mistakes.
Hematologia 2010; 1, 4: 271-279