Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2012 Jun 13:4:33.
doi: 10.1186/1758-3284-4-33.

A patient with primary Burkitt's lymphoma of the postnasal space: case report

Tahwinder Upile  1 , Waseem Jerjes, Jesuloba Abiola, Panagiotis Kafas, Ann Sandison, Zaid Hamdoon, Mohammed Al-Khawalde, Hani Radhi
Affiliations
Case Reports

A patient with primary Burkitt's lymphoma of the postnasal space: case report

Tahwinder Upile et al. Head Neck Oncol. .

Expression of concern in

  • Comment: Head and Neck Oncology.
    BioMed Central. BioMed Central. BMC Med. 2014 Feb 5;12:24. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-12-24. BMC Med. 2014. PMID: 24499430 Free PMC article. Review.

Abstract

Introduction: Burkitt's lymphoma is a highly aggressive lymphoma. The endemic form is present with Epstein - Barr virus. The most common sites are the mandible, facial bones, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, ovaries, breast and extra-nodal sites. We present the first reported case of a primary Burkitt's lymphoma of the postnasal space occurring in an elderly Caucasian male.

Case presentation: A 72-year-old Caucasian male farmer presented with a 6-week history of a productive cough and a painless left sided cervical swelling. Examination of the neck revealed a 5 cm by 5 cm hard mass in the left anterior triangle. A CT scan of the head and neck showed a soft tissue swelling in the postnasal space. Histology of the postnasal space mass showed squamous mucosa infiltrated by a high grade lymphoma. Immunohistochemical staining and in situ hybridisation confirmed the tumour to be Epstein - Barr virus Ribonucleic acid negative suggesting this was a rare sporadic form of the tumour presenting in a location that is atypical for the clinical subtype and age of the patient.

Conclusion: This is the first reported case of sporadic Burkitt's lymphoma of the postnasal space of an elderly Caucasian male in the absence of Epstein - Barr virus or human immunodeficiency virus infection and further serves to illustrate the diversity of histological subtypes of malignancies that may develop at this concealed site.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Computed tomography scan showing a well circumscribed uniform density mass on the left side of the posterior wall of the nasopharynx.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Computed tomography scan showing a well circumscribed lymph node in the left side of the neck.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Histopathology section showing squamous mucosa infiltrated by a high-grade lymphoma (H&E, x 2 objective).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Histopathology section, the infiltrate is composed of a monomorphic population of medium sized cells showing a typical starry sky pattern (H&E, low objective).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Histopathology section, the lymphoid cells show a “squared off” appearance along with numerous mitotic figures and macrophages (H&E, x40 objective).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Diebold J, In: Pathology and Genetics of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues. Jaffe E, Harris N, Stein H, editor. IARC Press, Washington, DC; 2001. Burkitt’s lymphoma; pp. 181–184.
    1. Blum KA, Lozanski G, Byrd JC. Adult Burkitt’s leukemia and Lymphoma. Blood. 2004;104:3009–3020. doi: 10.1182/blood-2004-02-0405. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kasamon YL, Swinnen LJ. Treatment advance in adult Burkitt’s lymphoma and Leukaemia. Curr Opin Oncol. 2004;16:426–435. - PubMed
    1. Knowles DM. Etiology and pathogenesis of AIDS related non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Haematol Oncol Clin North Am. 2003;17:785–820. doi: 10.1016/S0889-8588(03)00050-9. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Isaacson P, Norton A. Extra nodal Lymphomas. Churchill Livingstone, London; 1994.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources