A case of Hodgkin’s lymphoma arising in the maxillary gingiva

Abstract

We report a case of Hodgkin' s lymphoma that involved the maxillary gingiva and bilateral cervical lymph nodes. The patient was an 89-year-old woman who complained about an ulcer in the right maxillary gingiva and swelling of the right cheek. Biopsy specimens taken from the gingiva showed typical Reed-Sternberg (RS) cells within a composite inflammatory milieu. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that the RS cells were positive for CD30, CD15, and CD20, and in situ hybridization analysis revealed that the cells were also positive for EBER1. Thus the disease was finally diagnosed as mixed cellularity Hodgkin' s lymphoma.