[Secondary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the lung--differential diagnosis of pneumonia].

Two cases of intrapulmonally located non-Hodgkin lymphoma, originally subjected to stationary treatment under the suspicion of pleurapneumonia with pleurorrhea, are presented herein with the goal to show that no-Hodgkin lymphoma should be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of pleuropneumonia. About 90% of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas are accompanied by intrathoracical pathology at the time of diagnosis. The involvement of pleura as an affected organ stands at the third position in the rank order of frequencies. One fourth of all intrathoracical non-Hodgkin lymphomas are characterized by mediastinal and hilar lymph node invasion. There is no x-ray analysis of pulmonal non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Since non-Hodgkin lymphomas distribute hilifugally, investigators tend to misinterpret this syndrome as pneumonia, interstitial edema or bronchial carcinoma.