Nodular lymphoma: bone marrow and blood manifestations.

Morphological and clinical features of 39 patients with nodular lymphoma were studied with particular reference to bone marrow and blood involvement. Twenty-one patients (54%) were found to have bone marrow involvement at the time of initial diagnosis. Thirteen (33%) also had peripheral blood involvement. A specific cell type, the small nodular lymphoma cell, was found in the bone marrow smears of 19 and the 21 patients with bone marrow involvement and in the peripheral blood smears of all patients with blood involvement. When large cells predominated in the lymph node or bone marrow sections, the bone marrow smears and the imprints of the lymph node and trephine biopsy demonstrated these large cells to have morphological qualities of lymphocytes rather than histiocytes.