Haema 2017; 8(1): 9-17
by A. Papanikolaou, A. Tasidou
Haemopathological Laboratory, Evangelismos General Hospital, Athens, Greece
Abstract
Aggressive B cell lymphomas is the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is a heterogeneous group of lymphomas with different clinical, histological and genetic features. Τhe abundance of information that has been gained in recent years regarding the genetic and molecular landscape and its clinical extensions, led to a better understanding of the pathogenesis and the differentiation pathways of the aggressive B cell lymphomas “Cell of Origin (COO)”. The COO as well as the repeated mutations that activate multiple oncogenes (double hit status) are capable of standardizing more aggressive forms that are resistant to conventional therapies. Eight years after the WHO’s classification in 2008, the need to incorporate all this information led to its revision and its renewed publication in 2016. This new publication is an update of the 2008 classification’s data of the existing, well defined entities and it also adds a number of proposed entities. The recognition of homogenous and well defined entities remains as the classification’s goal, as well as the facilitation to identify less frequent entities with peculiarities that demand further study.