- >20% clonal plasma cells in the peripheral blood (PB)
- (or) >2,000/μL absolute count in PB
Plasma cell leukemia (PCL) is an aggressive type of plasma cell myeloma (PCM), which may be present at disease presentation (2-4% of PCMs) or develop from an existing PCM (1% of PCMs).
- Often have expression of CD20
- 80% do NOT express CD56
References
Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease. V Kumar, et al. 9th Edition. Elsevier Saunders. 2015. pp. 599-601.
WHO Classification of Tumors of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues. SH Swerdlow, et al. International Agency for Research on Cancer. Lyon, 2008. pp. 200-213
Swerdlow SH, Campo E, Pileri SA, Harris NL, Stein H, Siebert R, et al. The 2016 revision of the World Health Organization classification of lymphoid neoplasms. Blood. 2016;127: 2375–2390. doi:10.1182/blood-2016-01-643569