Clinicopathologic study of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma of the salivary gland.
OBJECTIVE
To study the histopathologic features and pathogenesis of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (MALT-oma) of salivary glands.


METHODS
Clinical data, paraffin-embedded sections, immunohistochemical slides (SP method) and electron microscopic features of surgical specimens of 32 cases of salivary gland MALT-oma were studied.


RESULTS
The patients were 27 males and 5 females, with a mean age of 54.76 years. The lesions were located in the parotid area in 17 cases, and in the submandibular gland in the remaining 15 cases. Much of the MALT-oma was replaced by infiltration of a great amount of centrocyte-like cells (CCL) as background and occasional large cells (centroblast- or immunoblast-like). In MALT-omas "lymphoepithelial lesions" were present. Immunohistochemically, CD20 expression was found to be positive and CD45RO expression was negative in all MALT-omas.


CONCLUSIONS
Most of the MALT-omas are low grade malignant tumors and have a "homing back" phenomenon. The cases were managed by surgery and chemotherapy. In a few MALT-omas which turned into high grade malignant tumors, the prognosis was poor. Acquired MALT may develop as a reaction to autoimmune disease and infection. Hyper-immune reaction and MALT hyperplasia under stimulation may result in myoepithelial sialadenitis and lead to MALT-oma of the salivary gland.
Shi
Q
Q
Department of Pathology, Nanjing General Hospital of PLA, Nanjing 210002, China.
Zhang
T
T
Xue
Q
Q
Fan
K
K
Sun
G
G
Yan
X
X
Shou
B
B
Yu
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018442:Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*