A Case of Preoperatively Diagnosed Primary Mucosa-associated Lymphoid Tissue Lymphoma of the Appendix

Chie Tanaka, Hideki Nozaki, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, Minoru Shimizu and Miho Sassa

Department of Surgery, Meitetsu Hospital

A 74-year-old woman underwent colonoscopy after a positive fecal occult blood test, and was diagnosed as having a submucosal tumor of the cecum. Since the biopsy specimen revealed no evidence of malignancy, she underwent a follow-up colonoscopy and biopsy six months later. She was then diagnosed as having mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (MALToma) of the cecum. An abdominal CT scan revealed thickening of the cecal wall without significant lymphadenectomy, and lymphoma cells were not detected by bone marrow aspiration. She was subsequently treated with ileocecal resection. Histologically, the tumor was diagnosed as a primary MALToma of the appendix with involvement of the serosa but no nodal metastasis. The patient has been disease-free for 28 months after the operation. We report herein a rare case of MALToma of the appendix, with a review of the literature.

Key words
primary mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma of the appendix

Reprint requests
Chie Tanaka Department of Surgery, Meitetsu Hospital
2-26-11 Sakou, Nishi-ku, Nagoya, 451-8511 JAPAN

Accepted
May 25, 2005

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.