Primary gastrointestinal lymphoma. A clinicopathologic study of 102 patients

Abstract

Clinicopathologic findings in 102 patients with primary gastrointestinal lymphomas were reviewed. Abdominal pain was the common presenting symptom. The primary sites of the tumors were: 67 in the stomach, 24 in the small intestine, 7 in the ileocecal region, 3 in the large intestine, and 1 in the esophagus. The disease more frequently affected males than females and showed peak incidence in the 5th decade of life. Gastric lymphomas usually presented with a single lesion, but multiple lesions were frequent in the small intestine. The body and/or antrum of the stomach were the commonest sites of the lymphomas. Gastric lymphomas were diagnosed at an earlier stage than intestinal lymphomas. There was 1 case with Hodgkin's disease. The remaining 101 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas were classified according to the Rappaport and the Kiel classifications. The proportion of nodular lymphomas in the present series was 7%. The frequencies of diffuse histiocytic type ard germinal center cell tumors were 62 and 74%, respectively. Cox's multivariate analysis for prognostic factors revealed that the stage of the tumor, sex, and age were prognostically significant.