Clinical Features:

• Presents as solitary or grouped papules, plaques or tumors
• Most common on the scalp, forehead and back
• Good prognosis

Histologic Features:

• Nodular or diffuse infiltrate occupying the entire dermis and sometimes extending into the subcuataneous fat
• Follicle formation may or may not be seen in the nodular pattern, and is absent from the diffuse pattern.
• The infiltrate consists of a mixture of centrocytes (small lymphocytes with cleaved nuclei) and centroblasts (large lymphocytes with prominent nucleoli), with the centrocytes typically predominating in the nodular pattern.
• If follicle formation is present, the neoplastic follicles are surrounded by reactive T-cells and histiocytes, with foci of interfollicular neoplastic B-cells.
• The diffuse pattern may resemble diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, but the prognosis remains excellent, and the diagnosis should still be follicle center lymphoma.
• The neoplastic lymphocytes stain for pan-B-cell markers and usually for bcl-6.
• CD10 may or not be positive, in contrast to systemic follicular lymphoma, in which it is positive.
• Also in contrast to systemic follicular lymphoma, the (14;18) translocation is almost always absent.

Cases associated with this book:

Primary cutaneous follicle center lymphoma
Author: Artur Zembowicz M.D. Ph.D.

Conference: DermatopathologyConsultations.com Teaching Collection