Immunocytochemistry of Lymphoreticular Tumours

This chapter presents immunocytochemistry of lymphorecticular tumors and identifies the small blue cells that confront pathologists in sections of malignant lymphoma to both substantiate their diagnoses and to provide a scientific basis for their classifications.

Abstract

This chapter presents immunocytochemistry of lymphorecticular tumors. Histopathological analysis of lymphoreticular neoplasms is greatly hampered by the essentially similar morphology of the different lymphoreticular cells as they appear in histological sections. It is to the credit of histopathologists that, despite this, great advances have been made in the understanding and classification of malignant lymphomas on morphological grounds alone. Patterns of cell distribution and subtle variations in nuclear size and shape have been exploited to the full yielding useful sets of diagnostic criteria and several soundly based classifications of this group of tumors. Nevertheless, observer error is still significant and differences in the quality and nature of fixation, and staining can radically change the histological appearances of a malignant lymphoma. Recognizing this, pathologists have long sought some other means of accurately identifying the small blue cells that confront them in sections of malignant lymphoma to both substantiate their diagnoses and to provide a scientific basis for their classifications.