Background & objective: Gastrointestinal tract is the most common extranodal involvement site of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). However, no standard treatment regimen has ever been established for primary gastric NHL (PGNHL). This paper was to summarize the clinical characteristics and treatment results of PGNHL patients.
Methods: Records of 59 PGNHL patients, treated from Jan. 1980 to Jan. 2002 in Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University, were reviewed to summarize their clinical characteristics, and influence of treatment modality on their survival.
Results: Of the 59 PGNHL patients, 46 (78.0%) were in stage I/II. According to Working Formulation, most of them were in intermediate grade (46, 78.0%). The most common immune phenotype was B-cell lineage (46/49, 93.9%). These patients were treated with chemotherapy plus surgery (37,62.7%), chemotherapy alone (17,28.8%), and surgery alone (5,8.5%), respectively. The 2-, 5-, and 10-year survival rates of the 59 patients were 76.4%,63.7%, and 42.5%, respectively. For those patients in intermediate grade (including immunoblastic cell lymphoma), there was no significant difference in the 5-year survival rate between the patients received chemotherapy plus surgery and the patients received chemotherapy alone (52.5% vs. 57.1%).
Conclusions: Chemotherapy-dominated modality is recommended for patients with PGNHL of intermediate or high grade. The effect of surgery on PGNHL needs to be confirmed by prospective randomized trial.