Mantle cell lymphoma – marginal zone-like variant

Four morphological variants are observed in mantle cell lymphoma. The marginal-zone like variant is a very rare morphological form of the disease. This bone marrow smear shows a predominant infiltration by neoplastic lymphocytes with plasmacytoid features. The tumour cells are medium-sized with abundant basophilic cytoplasm and eccentric location of nuclei.  Nuclear chromatin is less condensed, sometimes irregular (blue arrow), and small nucleoli are visible (red arrows). The plasmacytoid appearance is seen especially in the lymphocyte on the left (green arrow).