ICD-9-CM 193 MeSH D013964 | ICD-10 C73, C81-C96 eMedicine med/ | |
Thyroid lymphoma is a rare malignant tumor constituting 1% to 2% of all thyroid malignancies and less than 2% of lymphomas. Thyroid lymphomas are classified as non–Hodgkin's B-cell lymphomas in a majority of cases, although Hodgkin's lymphoma of the thyroid has also been identified.
Contents
Histopathology
The majority of thyroid lymphomas are non–Hodgkin's B-cell lymphomas; the rest exhibit properties of T-cell lymphomas .
Clinical presentation
As other thyroid lesions, thyroid lymphoma affects predominantly females over 70 years of age with a history of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Thus, Hashimoto's thyroiditis is considering as risk factor for thyroid lymphoma development. The thyroid lymphoma manifests as rapidly enlarging neck mass causing respiratory difficulty. On physical examination, patients usually exhibit a firm thyroid and lymphadenopathy.
Typical symptoms
Diagnosis
Thyroid lymphoma shows a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge in many cases, because some manifestation patterns are similar to [Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma ATC]. Performance of FNAB has helped to distinguish these two entities preoperatively.
Treatment
Combined modality therapy is the most common approach for the initial treatment of thyroid lymphomas. The CHOP regimen (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone) has been shown high effectiveness for many types of thyroid lymphoma. However, it is suggested to perform radiation therapy only for MALT resulting a 96% complete response, with only a 30% relapse rate.
Surgical treatment might be performed for patients with thyroid lymphoma in addition to chemotherapy and radiation, particularly for MALT lymphomas.
Staging
Staging of thyroid lymphoma is shown in the table below
Prognosis
The factors of poor prognosis for patients with thyroid lymphoma are advanced stage of the tumor, large size (>10 cm) as well as spreading to mediastinum. The overall survival for primary thyroid lymphoma is 50% to 70%, ranging from 80% in stage IE to less than 36% in stage IIE and IVE in 5 years.