The introduction of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for cell immunophenotyping and use of flow cytometry with the progressively improving software for multivariate analyses have revolutionized the diagnosis and influenced the classification of hematologic neoplasms. In this review we focus on the practical application of flow cytometry in the diagnosis and classification of malignant lymphomas and related lymphoproliferative disorders with special emphasis on differential diagnosis. A general approach to the utilization of flow cytometry (FC) in hematopathology with an algorithm to diagnose the most common neoplasms is presented. We discuss precursor B-cell neoplasms, mature B-cell neoplasms (SLL/CLL, mantle cell lymphoma, marginal zone lymphoma, hairy cell leukemia, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, plasma cell dyscrasias and lymphomas with plasmacytic differentiation), precursor T-lymphoblastic leukemia and mature (peripheral) T-cell neoplasms, including T-SLL/PLL, anaplastic cell lymphomas and large granular cell leukemia/lymphoma. The text is accompanied by characteristic FC scatterplots of the discussed entities.

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