Review
Copyright ©2012 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Dec 15, 2012; 4(12): 238-249
Published online Dec 15, 2012. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v4.i12.238
Gastrointestinal B-cell lymphomas: From understanding B-cell physiology to classification and molecular pathology
Xavier Sagaert, Thomas Tousseyn, Rhonda K Yantiss
Xavier Sagaert, Thomas Tousseyn, Department of Pathology University Hospitals Leuven, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
Rhonda K Yantiss, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY 10017, United States
Author contributions: Sagaert X designed and wrote the paper; Tousseyn T wrote the paper; Yantiss RK edited the paper.
Correspondence to: Xavier Sagaert, MD, PhD, Senior Clinical Investigator FWO Flanders, Department of Pathology, University Hospitals Leuven, Minderbroederstraat 12, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. xavier.sagaert@uzleuven.be
Telephone: +32-1-6341942 Fax: +32-1-6336548
Received: June 6, 2012
Revised: August 29, 2012
Accepted: November 20, 2012
Published online: December 15, 2012
Abstract

The gut is the most common extranodal site where lymphomas arise. Although all histological lymphoma types may develop in the gut, small and large B-cell lymphomas predominate. The sometimes unexpected finding of a lymphoid lesion in an endoscopic biopsy of the gut may challenge both the clinician (who is not always familiar with lymphoma pathogenesis) and the pathologist (who will often be hampered in his/her diagnostic skill by the limited amount of available tissue). Moreover, the past 2 decades have spawned an avalanche of new data that encompasses both the function of the reactive B-cell as well as the pathogenic pathways that lead to its neoplastic counterpart, the B-cell lymphoma. Therefore, this review aims to offer clinicians an overview of B-cell lymphomas in the gut, and their pertinent molecular features that have led to new insights regarding lymphomagenesis. It addresses the question as how to incorporate all presently available information on normal and neoplastic B-cell differentiation, and how this knowledge can be applied in daily clinical practice (e.g., diagnostic tools, prognostic biomarkers or therapeutic targets) to optimalise the managment of this heterogeneous group of neoplasms.

Keywords: B-cell; Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas; Gut; Molecular pathology