[Bilateral parotid enlargement from malignant lymphoma (author's transl)]

A rare case is reported of a 32-year-old man presenting with bilateral enlargement of the parotids only, later found to be due to a malignant lymphoma of the non-Hodgkin's type. Diagnosis was impossible at this stage because of the absence of other clinical signs, except for asthenia, and the negative results of complete investigation. Diagnosis became possible after the appearance of cutaneous lesions followed by a parotid nodule, which were shown by biopsy, over a period of two years, to be extensions of a non-Hodgkin's type 2 malignant lymphoma, according to the classification of Bryon et al. from Lyon. The initially prescribed corticoid treatment was replaced by multiple chemotherapy, and parotid enlargement, asthenia, and skin lesions were no longer present eight months later. The authors emphasize that no lesions occurred in the hematopoietic organs during the course of the disease, which clearly differentiates this case from the parotid lesions seen fairly frequently in blood diseases and Gougerot-Sjögren syndromes complicated by lymphoid leukemia.