Placental involvement by maternal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

We report a case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with placental metastasis. A 42-year-old pregnant women was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at 26 weeks' gestation by needle-aspiration biopsy of the lung. She later delivered a boy at 28 weeks' gestation; however, despite resuscitation he died soon after birth. Histopathologically, we found malignant lymphoma cells invading the intervillous space of the placenta, but an autopsy on the neonate was not authorized. The patient died 10 months later of widespread malignant lymphoma, confirmed by autopsy. This case is interesting, since malignancy during pregnancy is rare, and even more infrequent are cases of maternal malignant lymphoma with placental metastasis.