Symptoms
Clinical presentation of sparganosis most often occurs after the larvae have migrated to a subcutaneous location. The destination of the larvae is often a tissue or muscle in the chest, abdominal wall, extremities, or scrotum, although other sites include the eyes, brain, urinary tract, pleura, pericardium, and spinal canal. The early stages of disease in humans are often asymptomatic, but the spargana typically cause a painful inflammatory reaction in the tissues surrounding the subcutaneous site as they grow. Discrete subcutaneous nodules develop that may appear and disappear over a period of time. The nodules usually itch, swell, turn red, and migrate, and are often accompanied by painful edema. Seizures, hemiparesis, and headaches are also common symptoms of sparganosis, especially cerebral sparganosis, and eosinophilia is a common sign. Clinical symptoms also vary according to the location of the sparganum; possible symptoms include elephantiasis from location in the lymph channels, peritonitis from location in the intestinal perforation, and brain abscesses from location in the brain. In genital sparganosis, subcutaneous nodules are present in the groin, labia, or scrotum and may appear tumor-like.Ocular sparganosis a particularly well-described type of sparganosis. Early signs of the ocular form include eye pain, epiphora (excessive watering of the eye), and/or ptosis (drooping of the upper eyelid). Other signs include periorbital edema and/or edematous swelling that resembles Romanas sign in Chagas disease, lacrimation,  orbital cellulitis, exophthalmos (protrusion of the eyeball), and/or an exposed cornea ulcer. The most common sign at presentation is a mass lesion in the eye.
One factor that appears to improve the treatment of Type II PEL is the addition of rituximab (a monoclonal antibody directed against and killing CD20-bearing cell) to the intensive chemotherapy regimens used to treat Type I PEL: the malignant cells in Type II PEL commonly express CD20 whereas the malignant cells in Type I PEL rarely express this cell surface marker. However, there are several cases of KSHV/HHV8-negative EBL that presented with pericardial effusions without evidence of more extensive disease that have experienced complete responses and favorable prognoses without chemotherapy or other cancer treatment (including rituximab) after simple drainage of the effusion. These cases suggest that, in addition to the presence of rituximab-sensitive CD20-bearing malignant cells, Type II PEL may be a less severe disease than Type I PEL, at lease in certain cases. Treatment
PEL is generally resistant to cancer chemotherapy drugs that are active against other B-cell lymphomas and therefore carries a poor prognosis. Overall median and 1 year survival rates in a series of 28 patients treated with chemotherapy for PEL were 6.2 months and 39.3%, respectively. In this study, the complete response rate (presumed to be temporary) to a standard CHOP chemotherapeutic regimen (i.e. cyclophosphamide doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) was only 10% whereas a more intensive CHO chemotherapy regimen which included high dose methotrexate and bleomycin achieved a compete response rate (presumed temporary) of 70%.