Vol.97 No.5 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 97 No. 5 May 2004
Primary NK/T Cell Lymphoma of the
Upper Esophagus
Sho Morita, Atsuro Seki and Noboru Hamada
(Seirei Mikatahara General Hospital)
We report a rare case of primary NK/T cell lymphoma of the hypopharynx and upper esophagus in a 72-year-old man. He had suffered from a sore throat for 5 months, and presented with severe inflammation in the hypopharynx and upper esophagus. We biopsied the lesion 4 times, but there was such extensive necrosis that we could not excise enough tissue from the lesion for histological and immunophenotypic studies.
About 2 months later, we found another lesion in the liver and biopsied it for pathological diagnosis. He died of excessive hemorrhage from the necrotic neck lesion. It was difficult to diagnose primary NK/T cell lymphoma of the hypopharynx and upper esophagus in this case. There are no characteristic symptoms of this disease, and it was necessary to repeat the biopsy for diagnosis.
Key words : malignant lymphoma, NK/T cell lymphoma, hypopharynx lymphoma