F-18 FDG PET/CT in primary tonsillar lymphoma.

Non-Hodgkin lymphomas quite often present in the head and neck but primary tonsillar lymphomas of extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphomas are far less than 1% of head and neck malignancies. Reports of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (F-18 FDG PET/CT) related to primary tonsillar lymphoma are seldom. A 59-year-old man suffered from painful swelling of the bilateral tonsil. Biopsy diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. F-18 FDG PET/CT was performed for disease staging. Whole-body F-18 FDG PET/CT revealed the intense FDG uptake of bilateral tonsil with an additional small lymph node in the right side of the neck. This case also highlights the usefulness of staging and assessing therapy response in rare types of lymphoma.