Review

Granulomatous inflammation in lymph nodes draining cancer: A coincidence or a significant association!

Alka Bhatia¹*, Yashwant kumar ² and Anjali Solanki Kathpalia³

¹Department of Experimental Medicine and Biotechnology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India.

²Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Grecian Super speciality Hospital Mohali, India.

³Department of Pathology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India.

Accepted 10 January, 2022

Abstract

Granulomatous inflammation is considered to be an immune mechanism against infections or certain non-neoplastic conditions. Rarely granuloma formation may be noted in neoplastic disorders also. However a granulomatous response in the lymph nodes draining cancers is unusual. Such granulomas may sometimes show tumour cells in their centre. The exact cause of this phenomenon is not known but an immunologic reaction to tumour antigens has been suggested. A close scrutiny of such granuloma is necessary to avoid under diagnosis of a metastatic disease. Subtle morphological fea-tures which may be helpful in differentiating a co-existing infection or tumour induced granuloma need to be addressed. Moreover the biologic significance of such a granulomatous response in inducing tu-mour remission or in shielding tumour cells from host lymphocytes also requires further investigation.