Recent advances in understanding small B-cell leukaemias and lymphomas

The WHO classification of lymphoma represents the latest in a series of schemes to subdivide lymphoma into clinically significant subtypes. This classification recognizes the important contribution of clinical, immunophenotypic and molecular data to the recognition of separate entities. Classifications, by their very nature, are dynamic processes with more detailed information constantly emerging about the characteristics of each lymphoma type and their relationship to clinical outcomes, particularly with the advent of newer therapies. In this review we shall not give an overview of all the different small B-cell lymphomas but will try to highlight some areas that may be less familiar to diagnostic histopathologists or that are considered to be controversial or confusing.