Objective: To study the clinicopathologic characteristic of the primary extranodular non Hodgkin's lymphoma in head and neck.
Method: Clinical manifestation and the characteristic of clinicopathology of 216 extranodular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients in head and neck were analyzed retrospectively.
Result: The age of thirty-one to sixty and seventy-one to eighty years old were more common age range in the group of patients. Nasal cavity was the most commonly primary involved site (95 cases, 44.0%), secondly was tonsil (47 cases, 21.8%). The most common histologic subtype was NK/T cell lymphoma, which accounted for 49.5% (107 cases) of cases, secondly was diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL, 58 cases, 26.7%). The most common histologic subtype in different stach groups respectively is: NK/T cell lymphoma in nasal cavity (74 cases,77.9%), DLBCL in paranasal sinus (6 cases, 50.0%), DLBCL in tonsil (27 cases, 57.4%), NK/T cell lymphoma in nasopharynx (17 cases, 44.7%), and DLBCL in lingual root (5 cases, 45.4%).
Conclusion: We conclude that primary extranodular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is common in head and neck patients. There is characteristic in age, primary involved site and histologic subtype, which is helpful to understand these characteristic for pathologic diagnosis.