Integrating Flow Cytometry in the Diagnostic Work of HIV ‐Associated Hodgkin's Lymphomas

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is prevalent worldwide and typically presents symptoms like sudden pain, swelling, and weight loss. Classical HL (cHL) is largely treatable with modern risk‐adapted and response‐based therapy. cHL represents one of the most common malignancies occurring during the course of evolution in patients living with HIV. The present manuscript aimed to present the diagnostic work‐up with an emphasis on flow cytometry in patients with HIV‐associated lymphoma, of important clinical benefit both in the HIV‐endemic setting as well as in state‐of‐the‐art pathology departments. Three clinical cases of HIV patients, including HIV‐associated cHL, are presented in the chapter dedicated to HIV‐induced lymphomas diagnosed by FC, as Supporting Information, to support the particularities of the abundance of clonal B‐cell populations among different types of HIV‐related lymphomas. This adds to the proof‐of‐concept that the specific antibody panel design may help practitioners in discriminating among similar subtypes of HIV‐associated lymphomas. Recent data emphasise the importance of FC detection of cHL rapidly and effectively, adding diagnostic value to these small biopsies. FC is an important tool for clinical decision‐making in the management of HL patients, providing a noninvasive and accurate biomarker evaluation. For these considerations, we can conclude that FC is a very useful research tool, and the clinical cases presented in this paper indicate their importance in the rapid diagnosis of cHL as well.