CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Hematologic Malignancies
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1529049
Epididymal NK/ T-cell lymphoma and adrenal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are misdiagnosed as tuberculosis: two case reports and Literature review
Provisionally accepted
- Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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Extranodal NK/ T-cell lymphoma(ENKTCL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma(DLBCL) are specific subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma(NHL), which lack specific features and are difficult to diagnose. The clinical features of lymphoma and tuberculosis are similar, which are easy to be misdiagnosed and lead to delayed treatment. This report describes two cases, one that of a 34-yearold man who was diagnosed with epididymal tuberculosis because of fever, progressive epididymal enlargement, positive T-cell Spot Test(T-SPOT), and epididymal magnetic resonance imaging(MRI) suggesting possible epididymal tuberculosis. He was treated with anti-tuberculosis therapy for 1 month, but the patient's epididymis continued to grow. Needle biopsy pathology and immunochemical examination showed an epididymal NK/T cell lymphoma, which gradually shrank after chemotherapy. Meanwhile, a 77-year-old female patient was reported who was diagnosed with adrenal tuberculosis because of fever, night sweats, abdominal pain, positive QuantiFERON-TB Gold(QFT) test, and adrenal tuberculosis detected by positron emission tomography/computed tomography(PET/CT). She received anti-tuberculosis treatment for 2 weeks, but her symptoms were not improved. Biopsy pathology and immunochemical examination showed adrenal diffuse large Bcell lymphoma, which deteriorated rapidly after chemotherapy and she finally died. In this report, epididymal NK/T cell lymphoma and adrenal diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are rare, and the disease develops rapidly. The diagnosis depends on pathological morphology and immunohistochemistry.Early detection, diagnosis, and treatment are crucial for the prognosis of patients.
Keywords: Epididymal lymphoma, Adrenal lymphoma, epididymal tuberculosis, Adrenal tuberculosis, Misdiagnosis
Received: 26 Nov 2024; Accepted: 13 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ye, Liu, Yang, Yang, Fei, Liu, Zhan and Xia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lu Xia, Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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