Burkitt Lymphoma
Definition
- Highly aggressive B lineage lymphoma frequently presenting in extranodal sites or as a leukemia, characterized by monomorphic medium sized cells with a very high proliferation rate
Alternate/Historical Names
- Small non-cleaved lymphoma
Diagnostic Criteria
- Three types:
- Endemic in equatorial Africa and Papua New Guinea
- Sporadic cases world wide
- Immunodeficiency associated cases
- Uniform, round, medium sized nuclei
- Intermediate in size between small and large lymphoma cells
- Nucleoli multiple, central
- Coarse chromatin
- Plasmacytoid and atypical variants may show more nuclear pleomorphism
- Thin but distinct rim of cytoplasm
- Typically appears to be "squared off" in tissue sections
- Amphophilic to basophilic
- Velveteen and basophilic on Giemsa stain
- Small numbers of vacuoles on touch preps
- Plasmacytoid variant has eccentric basophilic cytoplasm
- Very high mitotic rate
- Ki67 nearly 100%
- Many tingible body macrophages ("starry sky")
- Diffse pattern of growth
- May preferentially involve germinal centers
- Always B lineage
- Frequent extranodal involvement
- GI tract, ovary, breast, kidney, central nervous system, peripheral blood
- Half of endemic cases involve facial bones
- HIV related cases frequently involve nodes or marrow
- Variants
Yasodha Natkunam MD PhD
Robert V Rouse MD
Department of Pathology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford CA 94305-5342
Original posting:: Oct 11, 2007