Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Otorhinolaryngol. Aug 28, 2015; 5(3): 82-89
Published online Aug 28, 2015. doi: 10.5319/wjo.v5.i3.82
Thyroid lymphoma: A case report and literature review
Kinneri Mehta, Cynthia Liu, Roy A Raad, Robin Mitnick, Ping Gu, David Myssiorek
Kinneri Mehta, David Myssiorek, Department of Otolaryngology, the New York University Clinical Cancer Center, New York, NY 10016, United States
Cynthia Liu, Department of Pathology, the New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, United States
Roy A Raad, Robin Mitnick, Department of Radiology, the New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, United States
Ping Gu, Department of Medical Oncology, the New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, United States
Author contributions: All authors contributed to the acquisition of data, writing, and revision of this manuscript.
Supported by The New York University Medical Center Institutional Review Board, New York, NY 10016, United States.
Institutional review board statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Informed consent statement: The patient involved in this case study gave her written informed consent authorizing use and disclosure of her protected health information.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: David Myssiorek, Medicine Doctor, Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Department of Otolaryngology, the New York University Clinical Cancer Center, 160 E34th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10016, United States. david.myssiorek@nyumc.org
Telephone: +1-212-7316085 Fax: +1-212-7315520
Received: May 13, 2015
Peer-review started: May 21, 2015
First decision: June 24, 2015
Revised: July 19, 2015
Accepted: August 13, 2015
Article in press: August 14, 2015
Published online: August 28, 2015
Abstract

Thyroid lymphoma is an unusual pathology. Different subtypes of lymphoma can present as primary thyroid lymphoma. This review illustrates via imaging, findings and treatment the need for accurate diagnosis and timely treatment. Patients and methods: patient’s chart, pathological findings and radiological images were reviewed in a retrospective analysis. Over several days, this 80 years old woman developed airway obstruction and rapid enlargement of her thyroid secondary to diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. She rapidly responded to her oncological protocol. Primary thyroid lymphoma is a rare disease. It is an important diagnosis to consider in patients presenting with rapidly enlarging neck masses. It is a treatable condition with fairly favorable overall survival even with the most aggressive histological subtypes.

Keywords: Thyroid, Lymphoma, Review, Diagnosis, Treatment

Core tip: An elderly woman presented with an enlarging neck mass and airway obstruction requiring intubation. After imaging and histologic work-up, the final diagnosis of the neck mass was primary thyroid lymphoma (PTL). PTL is an important diagnosis to be considered in patients presenting with rapidly enlarging neck masses, usually demonstrating significant response to chemotherapy and favorable prognosis. Tissue biopsy rather than fine needle aspiration is the current gold standard for definitive histologic diagnosis, adding the benefit of subtyping, a crucial prognostic indicator. Computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging is helpful for staging these lymphomas. The role of surgery in treating this entity has been diminished.