Nasopharyngeal and nasal malignant lymphoma: a clinicopathological study of 54 cases

Forty-one cases of nasopharyngeal and 13 cases of nasal malignant lymphoma have been examined histologically and immunohistochemically. All of the cases were non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; one case was of follicular type and the remaining 53 were of diffuse type. Large cell lymphoma comprised 48% of cases and most of the immunoblastic lymphomas showing pleomorphism occurred in the nose. Twenty-seven cases were of T-cell and 21 of B-cell phenotype. The predominance of T-cell lymphoma was due to an increased incidence of these in the nose, the T:B ratio of 3.33:1 contrasting with a 1:1.05 ratio in the nasopharynx. Nasopharyngeal lymphomas seem to show an intermediate incidence between the T-cell predominance in the nose and a B-cell predominance in the oropharynx. Since the large cell type of lymphoma was predominant, the differential diagnosis from undifferentiated carcinoma is important and is facilitated by the use of immunostaining methods.