Primary oral non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - A clinicopathologic study with immunohistochemical analysis

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is a group of highly diverse malignancies whose prognosis depends on the histologic type and associated factors like HIV positivity.

The aim of this study was to evaluate eight cases of NHL for their histologic type and HIV positivity, since both are major prognostic factors for NHL.

Eight cases of primary NHL of the oral cavity were evaluated for age, sex, clinical presentation, and the histologic type, along with immunohistochemistry. These cases were also evaluated for HIV positivity.

NHL cases which were diagnosed through the dental OPD and subsequent biopsy procedure were chosen. The patient data, including age, sex, location, clinical presentation, radiographic presentation, metastasis, and histologic subtype, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification were tabulated. Immunohistochemical markers were used to confirm the cell type. CD20 and CD3 were used for B cell and T cell, respectively. Subsequent western blot analysis was carried out for HIV detection.

75% of the NHL was of B-cell type; of this, 83% was found to be diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, which is an aggressive variant. 62.5% of cases were found to be HIV positive.

This study emphasizes the need for HIV investigation in NHL cases and the need to determine the histologic type, both of which significantly affect the treatment outcome and prognosis.