[Primary thyroid lymphoma: report of 8 cases]

Primary thyroid lymphoma (PTL) is a rare disease. Few patients are reported in the literature. We report eight new cases of PTL with long-term follow-up.

The clinical presentation was usually an enlarging neck mass squeezing surrounding structures. The diagnosis was established after thyroidectomy with histopathologic and immunohistochemical studies. Histology showed infiltrates of chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis in all cases. Three patients had thyroid lymphoma arising from mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. One patient died postoperatively. The other seven were treated with combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy. They were still in remission after a 6-year follow-up.

Diagnosis of PTL should be suspected when there is a recent thyroid enlargement. Surgery associated with chemotherapy and radiation gave good results in our study with long-term follow-up, though surgery was not always recommended in previous reports.