Abstract: To investigate the value of different bone marrow examinations ( bone marrow smear, bone marrow biopsy, and flow cytometry ) in diagnosing and staging lymphomas. Methods: To evaluate the outcome, the effect on clinical staging, and the risk of bone marrow infiltration in subtypes, we examined the bone marrow smear from 74 patients suffering from lymphomas, and bone marrow biopsy and flow cytometry were performed simultaneously. Results: The positive rate of lymphoma involved in bone marrow detected by bone marrow smear was  16.2% ( 12/74 ), 13.5% ( 10/74 ) by bone marrow biopsy, and 31.1% ( 23/74 ) by flow cytometry. The positive rate by flow cytometry was shown to be much higher than those by bone marrow smear and biopsy ( P < 0.05 ). The clinical staging could be revised by examinations combining bone marrow smear, bone marrow biopsy, and flow cytometry. Among all subtypes, the percentage of diffuse large B cell lymphoma involved in bone marrow was the highest. Bone marrow examinations played an important role on the diagnosis for patients without lymphadenectasis or hepatosplenomegaly. Conclusion: The current study demonstrated that bone marrow smear, bone marrow biopsy, and flow cytometry contributed to the clinical significance in diagnosing and staging lymphoma, respectively, and each was complementary and could not be replaced by each other.