small cleaved cells small cleaved cells small cleaved cells are a distinctive type of cell that appears in certain types of lymphoma. when used to uniquely identify a type of lymphoma, they are usually categorized as follicular (c82.0) or diffuse (c83.1) . the "small cleaved cells" are usually centrocytes that express b-cell markers such as cd20. the disease is strongly correlated with the genetic translocation t(14;18), which results in juxtaposition of the bcl-2 proto-oncogene with the heavy chain jh locus, and thus in overexpression of bcl-2. bcl-2 is a well known anti-apoptotic gene, and thus its overexpression results in the "failure to die" motif of cancer seen in follicular lymphoma. follicular lymphoma must be carefully monitored, as it often progresses into a more aggressive "diffuse large b-cell lymphoma."