Background & objective: Gastrointestinal tract is the most common extranodal involvement site of lymphoma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and pathological features of primary intestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and to discuss the relationship between clinical data and the prognostic factors.
Methods: From January 1980 to January 2000, 53 cases with primary intestinal NHL were included. All these patients were treated in Department of Abdominal Surgery or Department of Medical Oncology, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University. The relationship between clinical data and prognosis were analyzed by SPSS 10.0.
Results: The 5-year and 10-year survival rates of primary intestinal NHL patients were 49.59% and 41.33%, respectively. Log-rank univariate analysis showed that histological immunophenotype,B symptom,serum lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) level,clinical staging (Musschoff and Rohitiner), performance status, complete resection, single or multiple lesions were closely associated with survival (P< 0.05); while age,gender,tumor size,and therapy modality were not associated with overall survival. Cox model multivariate analysis indicated that only histological immunophenotype was closely associated with overall survival.
Conclusion: The histological immunophenotype was an independent prognostic risk factor for primary intestinal NHL. Primary intestinal T cell lymphoma was characterized by short clinical course, poor response and prognosis; more effective therapy strategy should be further explored.