Primary Thyroid Lymphoma: A Clinicopathologic Study of 9 Cases and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Background: Primary thyroid lymphoma（PTL）is extremely rare, thus the dilemma of diagnosis and treatment persists and prognosis remain incompletely understood. Materials and methods: The clinicopathological characteristics, treatment outcomes and prognoses of 9 consecutive primary thyroid lymphoma patients were analyzed retrospectively. Data such as age, gender, presence of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT), treatment protocol, pathologic results and survival status were evaluated. Stage was determined according to the Ann Arbor staging system.Results: They were mostly females with female to male ratio of 1.25：1. The 9 patients ranged in age from 15 to 77 years, with a median age of 63 year. Most of them（7/9）were older than 40 year. A previous history of Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) was observed in 4 patients. All of the nine patients were non-Hodgkin lymphoma（NHL）, eight patients were B cell NHL and one patient was T cell NHL. All patients were treated with surgical excision and most patients received 5-7 circle of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone) based chemotherapy post-operation only. Conclusions: The majority of them had good prognosis. Except two lost cases, 85%（6/7）of patients had a survival period of more than 5 years.