Lymphoma
General information
Key concepts
● may be primary (Primary central nervous system lymphoma) or secondary (pathologically identical)
● suspected with homogeneously enhancing lesion(s) in the central gray matter or corpus callosum (on MRI or CT) especially in AIDS patients
● may present with multiple cranial-nerve palsies
● diagnosis highly likely if tumor seen in conjunction with uveitis
● very responsive initially to steroids → short-lived disappearance (“ghost tumors”)
● treatment: usually XRT ± chemotherapy. Role of neurosurgery usually limited to biopsy and/or placement of ventricular access reservoir for chemotherapy
● risk factors: immunosuppression (AIDS, transplants), Epstein-Barr virus, collagen vascular diseases
Classification
May be primary (Primary central nervous system lymphoma) or secondary (pathologically identical)
see Mantle Cell Lymphoma.
One classification system for lymphomas divides the diseases according to the size of the white blood cells that has turned cancerous. The large-cell lymphomas have large cells. A large cell, in this context, has a diameter of 17 to 20 µm.
Other groups of lymphomas in this system are the small-cell lymphomas and mixed-cell lymphomas.