Vol.100 No.6 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 100 No. 6 June 2007
Four Cases of MALT Lymphoma Arising
in the Lingual Tonsil
Hitomi Ogihara, Atsushi Yuta, Motoko Yamaguchi, Yukiko Miyamoto,
Reiko Hattori, Hiroshi Imai and Yuichi Majima
(Mie University Graduate School of Medicine)
Chikako Tanaka
(Suzuka-Kaisei Hospital)
We report four cases of lingual tonsillar MALT (mucosal associated lymphoid tissue) lymphoma. The cases consisted of a 68-year-old woman, a 60-year-old woman, a 55-year-old woman, and a 75-year-old man. The clinical stages of these cases were IIA, IA, IV (invasion to bone marrow) and IA, respectively. As some types of lingual tonsillar MALT lymphomas show hypertrophy of the lymphoid tissue but not a mass, it is not easy to make a diagnosis of MALT lymphoma only by fiberscopic findings. Furthermore, the small size of biopsy specimens or tissue damaged by forceps can show a false negative consult.
Repeat biopsies are sometimes required for a definitive diagnosis. It is important to take large biopsy specimens with little damage, and to discuss well with pathologists.
Key words : MALT lymphoma, lingual tonsil, malignant lymphoma