Purpose: To evaluate the treatment results of localised aggressive gastric lymphomas with favourable prognosis using chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Patients and methods: Between February 1993 and December 2004, nine patients with primary gastric high-grade lymphoma have been treated by the Lymphoma Committee of Sfax (Tunisia). The sex ratio was 1.5. The mean age was 44.9 years. Histological type was the large cell B lymphoma in 100% of the cases. Disease was stage I in eight cases and stage II in one case (Ann Arbor Classification). The treatment consisted in primary chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy of the stomach with or without regional nodes (40 Gy).
Results: After treatment, all patients had complete remission. With a mean follow-up of 55.7 months, one patient was lost to follow-up; the other patients were alive with complete remission. No major acute toxicities or late effects were found. Overall survival was 100% at five years.
Conclusion: Chemotherapy associated with radiotherapy can be proposed to patients having localised and aggressive primary gastric lymphoma with favourable prognosis, since this treatment is well tolerated and provides satisfactory control of the disease.