Objective: To address the clinical features of malignant lymphoma (ML) occurring in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS), understand their similarities and differences and explore their risk factors.
Methods: Medical records of 17 cases of pSS/ML inpatients admitted to our hospital from January 1980 to August 2010 were systemically reviewed. And 163 cases were randomly selected as controls from 4485 pSS/nML inpatients at our hospital during the same period.
Results: There were 14 females and 3 m ales with the diagnostic age of pSS at (53 ± 13) years old. And the disease duration was (8 ± 9) years. There was no significant difference between two groups in three general aspects (P > 0.05). The gap between pSS and ML was (4 ± 4) years. Several significant differences existed between two groups (P < 0.05) in clinical features and laboratory findings: lymphadenopathy, parothydomegalia and leucopenia. The pathologic categories of ML in pSS/ML included NHL (n = 15) (14 cases of B-cell origin), HL (n = 1) and lymphosarcoma (n = 1).
Conclusion: During the course of pSS, the occurrence of such manifestations as lymphadenopathy, parothydomegalia and leucopenia, etc.tends to have a complication of ML with a dominance of NHL. And a worse prognosis is expected.