Correlation of surface receptors with histological appearance in 29 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The receptor patterns of cell suspensions from 29 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma were correlated with the histology of the nodes from which the cells were taken. Twenty-two were judged to be predominantly or largely B-cell, and because of this preponderance these were divided by a method based on the distribution of surface immunoglobulin and the expression of Fc and C3 receptors. "Mature" B-cell and B-mixed tumours showing capping surface Ig with Fc and/or C2 receptors correlated well with a nodular growth pattern, and consisted of what Rappaport (1966) calls "poorly differentiated" lymphocytes equivalent to the "small cleaved" cells as defined by Lukes and Collins (1975). Ten of the 14 patients in this receptor category are alive between 12 and 30 months after diagnosis. Receptor-silent and "immature" B-cell tumours with non-capping surface Ig correlated predominantly with the Rappaport histiocytic lymphoma and Lukes and Collins' large cleaved and large non-cleaved lymphomas, though these histological categories also included a wide variety of other receptor types such as T-cell, Receptor-overlap and the single true Macrophage tumour. Five of the 11 patients with receptor-silent or immature B-cell tumours are alive between 7 and 15 months after the diagnosis. Diffuse mixed and diffuse poorly differentiated lymphocytic lymphomas in Rappaport's classification correlated poorly with receptors, mature and immature B-cell tumours being equally represented.