Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Definition

Lymphoma composed of small to medium sized cells with mild to moderate nuclear irregularities, with a predilection for involving and expanding mantle zones

Predilection for involving and expanding mantle zones around compressed germinal centers
- Germinal centers may be obliterated yielding vague follicular pattern or diffuse pattern
- Pseudofollicular proliferation centers not seen
- Pericapillary hyaline deposits frequent
- Earlier studies described two types: diffuse and mantle zone
  - These types not currently distinguished
Uniform population of small to medium sized cells
- Mild to moderate nuclear irrregularites
  - Generally less irregular than follicular center cells
  - Some cases with mixture of regular and irregular cells
- Mitotic rate variable
- Plasmacytoid differentiation infrequent but may be seen
Separation from other small B cell lymphomas may require immunologic study
- bcl1 expression definitional, seen in 85%
  - BCL1-negative cases may have cyclinD2 (CCND2) or cyclin D3 (CCND3) expression
Scattered histiocytes frequent
- Non-phagocytic, no tingible bodies
May undergo blastic transformation
- Uniform, medium sized nuclei
- Dispersed, fine chromatin
- Numerous mitotic figures
- Same phenotype as non-blastic mantle cell lymphoma
Multiple lymphomatous polyposis
- Mantle cell lymphoma involving intestines

Yasodha Natkunam MD PhD
Robert V Rouse MD
Department of Pathology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford CA 94305-5342

Original posting:: October 11, 2006
Last update: October 8, 2007