Primary gastrointestinal lymphoma. A clinicopathologic study of 102 patients.

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.