Image findings of B cell lymphoma of the palate

In this report, we describe image findings in a case of a 78-year-old man with malignant lymphoma of the palate, which had progressively developed 8 years after malignant lymphoma of the neck. The patient was referred to our hospital with a complaint of painless swelling of the left palate. A slightly enhanced mass without apparent bone destruction was observed in the left palate on computed tomography (CT) images. The mass showed homogeneous signal intensity by both T1- and T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and the anterior part of the mass exhibited inhomogeneous enhancement, but most of the mass demonstrated homogeneous signal intensity with slight enhancement by enhanced MRI. On the basis of these image findings, the lesion was diagnosed as a benign tumor of the minor salivary glands in the palate. Histopathological examination revealed findings consistent with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, diffuse large B cell type (World Health Organization classification). On a gallium-67 scintigram, only the site of the lesion was positive.