[MALT lymphoma of the parotid salivary gland]

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma was described for the first time in 1983 by Isaacson and Wright. It was classified into extranodal non-Hodkin's lymphomas of B-cell lymphocytes of the marginal zone of reactive lymphe follicles. It is characterized by both hyperplasia and colonization of plasmocytic, centrocytoid and monocytoid cells, by the infiltration of interfollicular and parafollicular parts of interstitium, as well as by the invasion of clusters of neoplastic lymphoid cells of the glandular epithelium, forming the pathognomic lymphoepithelial MALT limphoma lesions.

In this paper we presented the two female patients, 59 and 75 years of age, with MALT lymphomas, associated with Miculicz's and Sjögren's syndromes. The paper also underlined rather many-month-long, indolent clinical course, evalution of both tumors, massive in size, as well as two-sided localization in the case of the Miculicz's syndrome. After the subtotal parotidectomy, using conservation of nerve facialis, the tissue blocks were fixed in 10% formaldehyde. The paraffine sections were stained by routine histochemical and an immunohistochemical method by using monoclonal antibodies for both B-cell and T-cell lymphomas, due to the verification of lymphoepithelial lesions. The MALT lymphoma diagnosis was based on the histological criteria and confirmed by an immunohistochemical method. After the surgical therapy accompanied by chemotherapy, the patients were controlled at regular intervals, and residual MALT lymphoma did not appear.

MALT lymphoma is a rare tumor of the salivary glands, with the most frequent localization in the parotide gland. It had a slow clinical course, without metastases in both patients. The diagnosis was made pathohistologically and confirmed immunohistochemically. The surgical therapy was accompained by adjuvant chemotherapy.