Is a Cure Within Reach for Mantle Cell Lymphoma?
Characterization according to risk
By putting patients into risk groups, researchers better understand the rate at which the disease grows - and therefore how aggressively they must move with their treatments. Some of these patients are candidates for initial observation or monitoring in regard to indolent mantle cell lymphoma, which has characteristics of low proliferation rate and Ki-67.
Conversely, high-risk patients have their own sets of features called blastic, blastoid, or pleomorphic mantle cell lymphoma, which describe how the mantle cell lymphoma will appear when viewed under a microscope.
Mantle cell lymphoma atypical lymphocytes tend to be between small and medium in their size, but when patients experience blastic or blastoid, the cells will be larger, and divide at a much faster rate. These can sometimes be connected to higher levels of Ki-67 and proliferation index, as well as multiple chromosomal abnormalities.
The majority of patients have classic mantle cell lymphoma, at around 85 percent, but researchers still find it worthwhile to look into these other forms so everyone can have a proper course of treatment.
