Flow cytometry is a sensitive technique to assess marrow involvement by B cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

A response to a letter written by Jurado et al. discusses the use of high acquisition flow cytometry (FCM) in assessing marrow involvement in patients with B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (B NHL). The response agrees with Jurado et al.'s findings that FCM is a sensitive technique for detecting marrow involvement. It also acknowledges the limitations of bone marrow biopsy (BMB) and positron emission tomography (PET) in assessing marrow involvement, and suggests that FCM, along with PET, should be used for staging the marrow. However, the impact of detecting smaller disease burdens in the marrow by FCM on disease outcome and prognosis is still uncertain, and further large randomized trials are needed to study this. [Extracted from the article]