Diagnostics and treatment of pulmonary BALT lymphoma: a report on four cases.

Bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT) is a lymphoid aggregate located in the submucosal area of bronchioles and plays a central role in airway mucosal immunity by inducing the accumulation of secretory IgA-producing cells. Long-lasting antigen stimuli promote the hyperplasia of BALT, which may develop into pulmonary mucosa-associated lymphoma (baltoma). Most pulmonary lymphomas are low-grade B-cell lymphomas. We have recently treated four patients with BALT lymphoma and this is our first report on their diagnostics and treatment. Based on these cases we wanted to demonstrate the difficulties of differential diagnosis during bronchoscopic and computed tomography (CT) examinations as well as the pitfalls of thoracosurgical vs hemato-oncological treatments.