Primary nasal lymphoma, NK/T-cell type: report of two cases with similar presentation but different outcome

Two cases of natural killer (NK)/T-cell primary nasal lymphoma with similar clinical presentations are reported, for comparison and contrast, to highlight the clinical issues and challenges posed by this unusual disease, its aggressiveness being matched only by its rarity. Presenting as a lesion in the nasal cavity with histological features of malignant lymphoma, primary nasal lymphoma is an uncommon extranodal lymphoma, which poses problems in both diagnosis and management. In people of oriental descent, the common cell subtype is NK/T-cell. Although it is generally thought that combination treatment with chemotherapy and radiation is the best management for early stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), there is still debate as to whether combined therapy is optimal treatment for this particular subtype of NHL, given that it responds less well to conventional chemotherapy. Herein we report two patients to illustrate these controversies.