Involvement of bone marrow in lymphoma: pathological investigation in a single-center from northern China.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to evaluate key features of bone marrow trephine biopsy (BMT) involvement of lymphoma in Northern China.

METHODS

950 cases were assessed for the occurrence of bone marrow involvement and architectural features including volume percentage, involvement pattern (diffuse, nodular, focal, para trabecular, or interstitial), and presence/absence of background changes (granuloma, stromal fibrosis or necrosis). Correlations with bone marrow aspirate (BMA) and flow cytometry (FCM) findings were made in a subset of paired cases (359 BMA and 364 FCM).

RESULTS

153 (16.1%) cases involved BMT. The most frequent type was mantle cell lymphoma (28/153, 18.3%). Architectural features were similar to previous studies except that diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) preferred focal pattern (16/22 cases, 72.7%) most of all. BMA and BMT agreed in 84.1% of cases (302 of 359: 277 both negative, 25 both positive), while FCM and BMT agreed in 80.8% of cases (294 of 364: 242 both negative, 52 both positive). Both varied widely among different subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS

Occurrence of BMT involvement by lymphoma in Northern China is relatively low. The volume percentage, distribution patterns and background changes may be useful pointers towards a particular lymphoma type in Chinese. FCM is more sensitive and reliable than BMA in China.