Identification of rhinopharyngeal plasmacytic tumours by immunofluorescence on paraffin-embedded sections

Solitary myeloma is an uncommon lesion which may occur in many organs, mainly in the rhinopharynx. This lesion usually appears as non-secretory, and it is constituted by either typical plasma cells or large and atypical cells resembling epithelial anaplastic cells. Therefore, and immunofluorescent method on paraffin-embedded sections may be applied to reveal the presence and the monoclonality of the intracytoplasmic Ig in the pathological cells. In this paper we report a study on 22 patients suspected to bear a rhinopharyngeal tumor investigated by immunofluorescence. Moreover, in 4 cases peripheral blood lymphocytes were also studied. The results are discussed on the basis of the modern immunological trends.