Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) is a member of the Tec family of protein tyrosine kinases involved in B cell development and proliferation in neoplastic human lymphoid tissues. We used immunohistochemistry to evaluate a polyclonal anti-Btk antibody on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks. The tested samples included normal lymphoid tissues, tissue samples of 395 different lymphomas and 14 malignant lymphoid cell lines. Btk was expressed more often in B cell lymphomas than in T cell lymphomas. This correlated well with the results obtained on B cell lymphoma cell lines, which strongly expressed Btk, in contrast to T cell lymphoma cell lines. More than 60 % of myelomas expressed Btk. Among Hodgkin lymphomas, the nodular lymphocyte predominant variant was more often positive (14/16) than the classical variant (6/27). Only one out of three Hodgkin lymphoma-derived cell lines showed a few atypical large cells expressing Btk. Btk represents a useful marker to identify B cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Furthermore, Btk might help to distinguish the nodular lymphocyte predominant variant of Hodgkin lymphomas from the classical form. Finally, in view of the recently discovered therapeutic potential of Btk inhibitors in lymphoma, we report the pattern of expression of Btk in a large collection of different types of lymphoma.