A Case of Natural Killer T-cell Lymphoma of the Tongue / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

Malignant lymphoma, which represents about 5.4% of all neoplasms and more significantly 19-28% of malignant neoplasms, is the most common non-epithelial malignancy in the head and neck area and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma accounts for 11.4% of all lymphoma in Koreans. Natural killer/T-cell (NK/T-cell) lymphoma is a lymphoma of the putative natural killer cell lineage. NK/T-cell neoplasms are generally rare, but they are more common in people of the Oriental, Mexican and South American descent. These neoplasms are highly aggressive and they show a strong association with Epstein-Barr virus. The preferential site of extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma is the nasal cavity and there has been no report of NK/T-cell lymphoma developing from the tongue in the oral cavity. We experienced one rare case of extranasal NK/T-cell lymphoma of the tongue, and to our knowledge, this was the first case in Korea. Thus, we report this case with a review of the literature.