Role of Flow Cytometry in Diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: A Study at RIMS, Ranchi, India

Abstract

Purpose: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL) are cancers of mature B, T and NK cells. Diagnosis of NHL is based on immunophenotyping by immunohistochemistry of excised lymph node or flow cytometric immunophenotyping.  FNA cytology with immunolabelled flow cytometry can in some circumstance serve as a replacement of open biopsy and conventional histology and immunohistochemistry.

Method: The present study consisted of 52 patients suffering from lymphoreticular malignancies who attended and/or were admitted in the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, during the period from March 2020 to August 2021.

Results: Out of 54 cases suspicious of Lymphoreticular malignancy, 2 were found to be non-lymphoid origin by flow cytometry of fine needle aspirate and sample collection was inadequate in 3 cases (5.5%). On Immunophenotyping, 44 cases (88%) were found to be B-NHL and 5 cases (10%) were T-NHL. Furthermore, it was sublassified as DLBCL 16 cases (32.6%), FL 6 cases (12.2%), MZBCL 3 cases (6.1%), CLL/SLL 5 cases (10.2%), MCL 2 cases (4.08%), Unclassified B-NHL 12 cases (20.3%) and Mature T cell NHL 5 cases (10.2%).

Conclusion: Flowcytometry can be a great tool in diagnosis and classification of NHL and can be used alternatively to conventional excisional Lymph node biopsy and immunohisto-chemistry.

Keywords: Flow cytometry, immunophenotyping, Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, FNA cytology