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Lymphomas Affecting the Sublingual Glands: A Clinicopathological Study

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Abstract

Background

Lymphomas affecting the sublingual glands are extremely rare and very few case reports are currently available. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to describe the clinicopathological features of a series of lymphomas involving the sublingual glands.

Methods

Cases diagnosed in four pathology services were assessed and the formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks were retrieved for diagnosis confirmation. Clinical data were obtained from patients’ medical files.

Results

We obtained seven cases of lymphomas in the sublingual glands, representing two follicular lymphomas, two diffuse large B cell lymphomas not otherwise specified (DLBCL NOS), two extranodal marginal zone B cell lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT lymphomas) and one mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). In all cases the tumor cells infiltrated the glandular parenchyma, although in two of them the neoplastic cells were located more superficially and permeated the glandular acini and ducts. Clinically, the tumors presented as asymptomatic nodules and two patients (affected by DLBCL NOS and MCL) died, while the other five patients remained alive at last follow-up.

Conclusion

Lymphomas affecting the sublingual glands are usually of the mature B cell lineage, often represent low-grade subtypes and may clinically resemble other more common lesions in the floor of the mouth like salivary gland tumors.

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Data Availability

The manuscript has no further associated data in a data repository.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES/Brazil, Finance Code 001), the São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP/Brazil) (FAPESP #17/14880-3), the Minas Gerais State Research Foundation (FAPEMIG) and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq/Brazil).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral Surgery and Pathology, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, Belo Horizonte, 6627, Brazil

    Gabriela Ribeiro de Araújo, Ana Luísa Morais-Perdigão, Ricardo Santiago Gomez & Felipe Paiva Fonseca

  2. Department of Oral Diagnosis, Piracicaba Dental School, University of Campinas, Piracicaba, Brazil

    Cinthia Verónica Bardález Lopez de Cáceres, Márcio Ajudarte Lopes, Elena María José Román Tager & Felipe Paiva Fonseca

  3. Department of Stomatology II, University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Bizkaia, Spain

    José Manuel Aguirre-Urizar

  4. Centro Clínico de Cabeza Y Cuello, Guatemala City, Guatemala

    Roman Carlos & Elena María José Román Tager

  5. Department of Oral Biology and Oral Pathology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Willie F. P. van Heerden, Liam Robinson & Felipe Paiva Fonseca

  6. Service of Oral Pathology, João de Barros, Barreto University Hospital, Federal University of Pará, Belém, Brazil

    Hélder Antônio Rebelo Pontes

  7. Department of Oral Diagnosis and Pathology, School of Dentistry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Bruno Augusto Benevenuto de Andrade

  8. Private Pathology Service, Getúlio Sales Diagnósticos, Natal, RN, Brasil

    Ciro Dantas Soares

Authors
  1. Gabriela Ribeiro de Araújo
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  2. Ana Luísa Morais-Perdigão
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  3. Cinthia Verónica Bardález Lopez de Cáceres
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  4. Márcio Ajudarte Lopes
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  5. José Manuel Aguirre-Urizar
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  6. Roman Carlos
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  7. Elena María José Román Tager
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  8. Willie F. P. van Heerden
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  9. Liam Robinson
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  10. Hélder Antônio Rebelo Pontes
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  11. Bruno Augusto Benevenuto de Andrade
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  12. Ciro Dantas Soares
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  13. Ricardo Santiago Gomez
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  14. Felipe Paiva Fonseca
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Contributions

FPF: Study concepts, FPF: Study design, GRdA, ALM-P, CVBLdC, MAL, JMA-U, RC, ER, WFPvH, LR, HARP, BABdA, CDS: Data acquisition, FPF, RSG, CDS: Quality control of data and algorithms, FPF, BABdA, RSG: Manuscript editing, All authors: Manuscript review.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Felipe Paiva Fonseca.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

We state that all authors confirm that they have no potential conflict of interest that could bias the results obtained in the current study, that the material is original, has not been published nor previously submitted elsewhere.

Ethical Approval

The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (CAAE: 58900722.1.0000.5149).

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The participant has consented to the submission of the case report to the journal.

Research Involving Human and Animal Participants

Not applicable.

Additional information

Roman Carlos was deceased on November 5th, 2021, but his earlier contributions to this article remains significant.

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de Araújo, G.R., Morais-Perdigão, A.L., de Cáceres, C.V.B.L. et al. Lymphomas Affecting the Sublingual Glands: A Clinicopathological Study. Head and Neck Pathol 17, 154–164 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-022-01489-8

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