Intermediate lymphocytic lymphoma of the salivary gland

Three patients had a painless mass in the parotid (two patients) or submandibular regions (one patient). These patients were 70, 66, and 65 years of age, respectively. One patient was male and the other two were female. No symptoms suggesting the presence of autoimmune sialadenitis had been noticed, although one patient suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. Histologic study showed that small atypical lymphoid cells with slightly irregular and indented nuclear contours proliferated diffusely and secondary lymph follicles were distributed at random among them. These findings are similar to those that we recently reported for intermediate lymphocytic lymphoma (ILL) of the thyroid gland arising in patients with autoimmune thyroiditis. A high frequency of ILL among our series of salivary lymphomas (three of nine cases) is discussed.