title: Primary nasal-type natural killer/T-cell lymphoma of pterygopalatine fossa.
abstract: Primary tumors that originated from the pterygopalatine fossa are seen rarely. In this paper, the case of a 69-year-old woman who complained of a 2-month history of headache, extending to the left part of the face, teeth, and shoulder, is reported. She had undergone right total mastectomy and axillar dissection of a spindle cell-type metaplastic carcinoma of the breast 1 year ago. Computed tomographic and magnetic resonance images showed a mass originating from the pterygopalatine fossa. Pathologic examination of the biopsy specimen of the mass revealed a nasal-type extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma with CD45 and intense CD56 staining. Our case shows that a nasal-type extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma should be thought in mind for the differential diagnosis of primary tumors of the pterygopalatine fossa.
authors.affiliation: ENT Department, Faculty of Medicine, Kirikkale University, Kirikkale, Turkey.
authors.forename: Osman Kürşat
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Arikan
authors.forename: Nuray Bayar
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Muluk
authors.forename: Pinar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Atasoy
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000601:surgery; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D054391:Lymphoma, Extranodal NK-T-Cell / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015413:Mastectomy, Simple; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D016609:Neoplasms, Second Primary / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009669:Nose Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D056739:Pterygopalatine Fossa / Q000473:pathology*; D012888:Skull Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed