Background: Unlike other low-grade lymphomas, extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue type usually presents with localised disease.
Aim: To detect peripheral blood lymphoma involvement to establish the incidence of occult lymphoma dissemination.
Patients and methods: In a series of 18 cases, peripheral blood was analysed by polymerase chain reaction, with primers directed to the third-complementarity determining region of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene.
Results and conclusion: The presence of circulating neoplastic cells was detected in 21% of clinically localised cases. Moreover lymphoma cells were detected in 2 out of 6 morphologically normal bone marrow specimens. The present data show that, combining morphological and molecular methods, occult dissemination can be found in a large proportion of cases thus stressing the need for careful staging procedures. However, it has still to be clarified whether the presence of polymerase chain reaction-detectable circulating lymphoma cells can influence the outcome of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma patients submitted to antibiotic treatment (for gastric localisation) or local therapy (surgery or radiation, for non-gastric tumours).