Diagnosis and treatment of CD20 negative B cell lymphomas

CD20 negative B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is rare and accounts for approximately 1-2% of B cell lymphomas. CD20-negative NHL is frequently associated with extranodal involvement, atypical morphology, aggressive clinical behaviour, resistance to standard chemotherapy and poor prognosis. The most common types of these include plasmablastic lymphoma, primary effusion lymphoma, large B-cell lymphoma arising from HHV8-associated multicentric Castleman's disease, and ALK+ large B cell lymphoma. This review provides an overview of the diagnostic and treatment modalities for CD20 negative B cell NHL.