Primary lymphomas of bone (so-called ("Parker and Jackson's reticulum cell sarcoma") : histological review of 75 cases according to the new classifications of non Hodgkin's lymphomas.

75 cases of primary lymphomas of bone ("reticulum cell sarcoma" described by Parker and Jackson) were reviewed. Biopsy specimens were classified according to several histological classifications, including Lukes' classification for nodal lymphomas. Among 24 tumors described as "histiocytic lymphomas" in Rappaport's classification of 1966, only one case remains as "true histiocytic sarcoma". The others were reclassified as follows : 6 tumors with a predominance of large cleaved cells, 13 tumors with large non-cleaved cells, 2 as immunoblastic tumors and 2 as unclassifiable. In non Hodgkin's lymphomas, the histological diagnosis and the results of the initial staging have been shown to be greater aids in the prediction of survival than the primary site of the disease. Therefore, the clinical and therapeutical approach to the patients with lymphomas of bone must be modified to be similar to that of patients with nodal localisations of the disease.