[Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the brain, sarcoidosis, thyroid cancer and immunity cell deficiency (author's transl)].

A 66-year-old man presented with a primary malignant lymphoma of the cerebellum and brain stem. The lymphoma was of type V (Bryon's classification) with predominant B cells, and was associated, as in previously reported cases, with a peripheral blood T lymphocyte deficiency. This case was unusual, in that autopsy revealed an active multivisceral sarcoidosis (considered as being cured more than 10 years previously), a clear-cell renal adenoma demonstrating nearly all the characteristics of a Grawitz's tumor, and a papillary epithelioma of the thyroid gland. These findings lead to discuss the significance of immuno-surveillance lack in this particular case: was it dependent on the sarcoidosis (during which a reduction in T lymphocytes is known to occur), or was it primary and perhaps genetic, a son of the patient having Hodgkin's disease? Whatever the case may be, the encephalic proliferation of the B lymphocyte clone, the peripheral epitheliomas, the sarcoidosis, and the deficit in T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood constitute a group of factors singularly rich in questions, this being, apparently, the first case of this type reported in the published literature.