Loggins and Urquhart listed several clinical findings that should suggest that a patient with a parotid mass may have a malignant lymphoma. A patient with a parotid lymphoma can be managed without radical parotidectomy. The authors are from the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wisconsin.
Clinical features suggesting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a patient with a parotid mass:
(1) The patient has a history of automimmune disease or malignant lymphoma.
(2) The parotid lesion(s) are bilateral, multiple, and/or poorly circumscribed.
(3) The patient has cervical lymphadenopathy.
where:
• I would think that lymphadenopathy in other regions would also be suggestive evidence.
• A preoperative CT scan of the head and neck is often sufficient to identify most of these findings.
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