Conclusion
BALT lymphoma is a rare B-NHL with favorable prognosis. We here report
on two patients with nonspecific symptoms: one showed as major symptom
severe thrombocytopenia and the other dyspnea and dry cough, thereby
suggesting an inflammatory focus in the lungs. There is no standard of
care established yet. Both of our patients received an
immunochemotherapy with rituximab/bendamustine. In previous studies and
case reports, rituximab showed promising results and is commonly used as
single agent treatment or in combination with chlorambucil or
bendamustine. In our patients therapy with rituximab/bendamustine led to
promising responses. Thus, we would recommend this immunochemotherapy as
first-line therapy as in other MALT lymphomas, if an underlying chronic
inflammatory disorder/trigger factor can be excluded. Nevertheless, more
investigations and studies are necessary to unravel the underlying
pathomechanism of BALT lymphomas, thus enabling to establish a standard
of care.