A Flow Cytometric Scoring System in the Diagnosis of Mantle Cell Lymphoma

Objective: Our aim was to evaluate the contribution of flow cytometry (FC) analysis in patients with a histopathological diagnosis of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and to develop a reliable scoring system. Materials and Methods: We assessed the results of FC analysis in peripheral blood or bone marrow samples of 36 patients diagnosed with MCL by histopathological evaluation. Multivariate analysis identified 5 variables associated with MCL: CD23 negativity, CD5/19 common positivity, CD20/22 common bright positivity, FMC7 positivity, and clonal sIg bright positivity. A 5-point scoring system was devised using these parameters. Results: Twenty-five patients (69.4%) scored 5 points, 8 (22.2%) scored 4 points, and 3 (8.4%) scored 3 points. The diag- nosis of MCL was confirmed by FC immunophenotyping in 91.6% of the patients. Conclusion: Our results suggest that a quintet diagnostic scoring system, which is considered to be reliable in the diagnosis of MCL, could make a substantial contribution to diagnosis and should be more widely introduced in practice.