Oral presentations in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a review of thirty-one cases. Part I. Data analysis.

Thirty-one patients with oral manifestations of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma have been studied with reference to age, sex, race, location of lesion in oral cavity, stage of disease on presentation, duration of disease at time of presentation, histologic type, modes of treatment, and survival. There were 6 children and 25 adults, ranging in age from 3 to 89 years. Only 2 of the 31 patients were black. Sex incidence was almost equal, with 17 females and 14 males. In 12 cases the oral findings alone represented the initial presentation of lymphoma. The maxilla, mandible, and palate accounted for 24 of the 31 cases. The preponderance of diffuse histologic patterns was striking (77.4 percent). Eighteen cases (58.0 percent) presented in Stage I or Stage II, indicating relatively limited extent of disease. More generalized involvement was found in the remaining thirteen cases (41.9 percent). Thus, although NHL may appear in the oral region as the first detected evidence of disease, in many patients a work-up will show that the process is widespread in distribution. In this brief series survival data coincide with the established principles that a poorer prognosis is associated with the diffuse histologic pattern, as well as certain identified histiocytic and poorly differentiated lymphocytic subtypes.