title: Primary thyroid lymphoma: The two ends of the spectrum.
abstract: We describe two different cases of prinary thyroid lymphoma (PTL). PTL is a rare malignancy. Nevertheless, it frequently presents diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. The first patient, a 79-year-old female, presented with a large, painless thyroid mass accompanied by severe obstructive symptoms of the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal track. The second patient (67-year-old female) presented with nodular goiter. Thyroidectomy - performed on the first patient for alleviation of obstructive symptoms - revealed the presence of a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Although she was administered standard chemotherapy she deceased four months later. In the second patient, primary thyroid lymphoma was an incidental finding following thyroidectomy performed for nodular goiter. These two cases illustrate the variable course of PTL, the possibility of which should be kept into consideration in clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Metaxa Cancer Hospital, Piraeus, Greece.
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Triantafillou
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Papadakis
authors.forename: Olympia
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Tzaida
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Papazian
authors.forename: Aikaterini
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Megalakaki
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moustakas
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Keramidas
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kaltzidou
authors.forename: Athanasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tertipi
authors.forename: Anastasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pappas
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery