Central Nervous System Lymphoma Newly Developed 12 Years after Remission of an Ocular Adnexal Lymphoma

Recurrence of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma more than 5 years after the initial diagnosis is rare. When late relapse occurs, it is difficult to determine whether it is a true recurrence or a new lesion. We experienced a case of an 81-year-old woman who developed central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma 12 years after remission of ocular adnexal lymphoma. Both showed the histology of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. To elucidate whether the CNS lymphoma was clonally related to the first lymphoma, rearrangement of the immunoglobulin heavy chain genes of each lymphoma was studied using a polymerase chain reaction-based method. The results revealed that the sizes of the amplified products of the rearranged regions from the two lymphomas were different. This suggested different clonal origins of the lymphomas. It is clinically important to determine the origin of a second neoplasm because patients with a clonally related second lymphoma are usually treated with more intensive regimens, while those with a clonally unrelated lymphoma receive standard first-line therapy. The present case shows that, in Received: December 10, 2012 Accepted after revision: February 28, 2013 Published online: July 11, 2013 Keiko Morikawa Higashi-ku Koto 1-1-60 Kumamoto 862-8505 (Japan) E-Mail keiko_milfoil @ yahoo.co.jp © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel 0001–5792/13/1304–0247$38.00/0