differential diagnosis of adult cervical lymphadenopathy

Cervical lymphadenopathy in an adult can result from a vast number of conditions. They include:

malignancy
- metastases
  - from head and neck tumors
- lymphoma
other neoplastic lesions
- Castleman disease
- Kaposi sarcoma
infection
- bacterial infection
- viral infection
  - Epstein-Barr virus
  - herpes simplex virus
  - cytomegalovirus
- mycobacterial
  - tuberculous cervical lymphadenitis
  - non-tuberculous mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis
others
- Kimura disease
- Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD)
- AIDS-related lymphadenopathy
- sinus histiocytosis (Rosai-Dorfman disease): young adults