Pediatric follicular lymphoma of the parotid gland

Abstract

Primary malignant lymphoma rarely presents as a mass in the salivary gland. It accounts for about 1% of salivary gland tumors. The lymphomas of the parotid gland are mainly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of B-cell follicular type. It usually occurs in male adults and is very rare in children. In contrast to the intractable disease course of adult parotid follicular lymphoma, when occurred in children or adolescent, its prognosis is very good when it is first treated with surgical excision. Thus, a solitary follicular lymphoma in an extranodal site that has occurred in children is termed separately as pediatric follicular lymphoma (PFL). We share our treatment experience of a 16-year-old PFL patient through surgical removal combined with superficial parotidectomy. In line with the few previous case reports of PFL, we suggest that active surgical removal should be undertaken for solitary, extranodal follicular lymphoma of the pediatric and adolescent population.