Four cases of metastatic lymphoma into the temporal bone

A histopathological study on 17 temporal bones obtained from 9 patients who died of malignant lymphoma revealed metastasis of malignant lymphoma in 7 temporal bones from 4 of them. There were no differences in stages at the initial diagnosis between the cases with metastasis and those without metastasis. However, the higher was the frequency of metastasis, the longer became the period from the first medical examination to death. In addition, malignant lymphoma was considered to metastasize into the temporal bone by the following two routes, 1) direct infiltration or invasion from the cerebrospinal fluid and 2) hematogenous metastasis or invasion.