Unilateral multiple adenolymphomas originating in the parotid gland: a clinicopathological study

The validity of Seifert's hypothesis about growth pattern of adenolymphomas has been evaluated in three of five patients with adenolymphomas of the parotid gland, who at the time of a parotidectomy, were found to have multiple unilateral adenolymphomas in the intraglandular lymph nodes. This evaluation, which was based on assessing the epithelial: lymphoid tissue ratio in excised adenolymphomas and the growth in tumor size, showed that there was no association between the histological changes in the epithelial:lymphoid tissue and the tumor size. Adenolymphomas seem to have no consistent growth pattern and develop independently. However, as multiple tumors were detected histopathologically in lymph nodes as small as 5 mm in diameter the importance of a detailed examination of patients with adenolymphomas is stressed, so that other tumours are not overlooked.