Primary non-Hodgkin lymphoma of the right colon: a retrospective clinical-pathological study

The objective of this study was to analyze the results of surgical treatment of primary non-Hodgkin lymphomas of the right colon. Ten patients were operated on with curative intention. Dawson's criteria were used to characterize the colonic lymphoma as a primary lymphomas. In the staging of the tumor, the Ann Arbor classification for gastrointestinal lymphomas modified by Musshoff and Schmidt-Vollmer was used. The histological classification was made by using the International Working Formulation Group system. All patients were submitted to radical right colectomy and 6 of them received postoperative chemotherapy. The overall average survival was 39.2 months. Four of the patients are still alive, without active disease, with an average survival of 85.2 months. Six patients died due to relapse in the abdomen, with an average survival of 8.2 months. These results suggest that it is advantageous to patient survival to have them submitted for resection of their lesions at an initial stage of the disease (IE and IIE1). Chemotherapy must be used as a complementary treatment in locally advanced lesions, in an attempt to control the residual microscopic disease.