Mantle cell lymphoma: pathologic and immunophenotyping study of 50 cases and correlation with survival—a single institute experience

Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is a relatively rare lymphoma subtype. Almost all cases show common genetic abnormality t(11;14), resulting in overexpression of cyclin D1 protein. The clinical course is usually aggressive, and the disease is mainly considered incurable but obvious clinical heterogeneity exists. Most patients experience a rapidly progressive course, and some go through an indolent course of disease. So new strategies are needed for risk stratification and may allow for a more personalized approach in the future. We retrospectively studied 50 cases of MCL which were diagnosed at a single center over about 5 years to determine clinicopathologic and immunophenotyping findings. This study focuses on (1) age, gender, and location of tumor at presentation; (2) some challenges in the diagnostic criteria; (3) cytomorphology, histomorphology, immunophenotyping, and proliferation rate; and (4) overall survival and finally relationship with demographic and pathologic findings which shows no association between survival of patients and gender, cytomorphology, histology, and location of tumor while increased mitotic activity and age are prognostically important factors. Cyclin D1 immunostaining is strictly recommended in all low-grade B cell lymphoma due to absence of CD5 expression on 20% of confirmed MCL and also on all high-grade B cell lymphoma for avoiding overlook of blastic variant of MCL.