Extra oral Plasmablastic lymphoma with Pleural Effusion- Rare Case

Abstract

Plasmablastic lymphoma is extremely uncommon. Mostly they are found in HIV positive/immunodeficient patients. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is increasingly used as a primary diagnostic procedure to diagnose lymphoma. But FNAC alone cannot differentiate between Plasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) and extramedullary plasmacytoma (EMP) and biopsy with histopathological examination/other ancillary techniques are used for confirmation. The distinction is important as the latter have a completely different therapy and a better prognosis than PBL. We are reporting a case of PBL in a HIV positive 40 year old male patient, presenting initially with a primary scalp swelling and later on with a soft tissue neck swelling with left sided pleural effusion. The patient was initially erroneously diagnosed as extramedullary Plasmacytoma. The diagnostic dilemma that we faced along with a review of literature is added to help other cytopathologists to avoid misdiagnosis of this rare lymphoma.