Data from the Registry of Digestive tumours of the Département of Côte d'Or (France) were used to study the characteristics of gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in the 1976-90 period. The mean annual age-standardized incidence rate was 0.94 per 100,000 for men, and 0.54 per 100,000 for women. Incidence varied little during the study period. Overall 5-year survival rate was 34.3 +/- 5.6%.