A case of NK/T cell lymphoma with bronchial lesions accompanying obstructive pneumonia
Takeshi Matsumotoa Kyoko Otsukaa Kazuma Nagataa Kazunari Aokib Keisuke Tomiia Yukihiro Imaic
aDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Kobe City Medical Center Hospital
bDepartment of Hematology, Kobe City Medical Center Hospital
cDepartment of Pathology, Kobe City Medical Center Hospital
A 48-year-old man presented with repeated pneumonia in the left lower lung field. Chest computed tomography showed obstructive pneumonia resulting from a tumor in the left main bronchus. Immunostaining by repeated bronchoscope-guided biopsy suggested natural killer (NK)/T cell lymphoma.18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography showed increased uptake into both the nasal cavity and bronchial lesions. The patient was diagnosed as having extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKL). To the best of our knowledge, there have been no previous reports of ENKL including bronchial lesions, but this case indicates that ENKL could invade upper and lower respiratory tract lesions at the same time. The development of new chemotherapeutic regimens has improved the prognosis of this disease, so it is important that pulmonologists should recognize ENKL.
Obstructive pneumonia Bronchial lesion NK/T cell lymphoma
Received 11 Jul 2011 / Accepted 12 Oct 2011
AJRS, 1(2): 151-156, 2012