Primary colonic non-Hodgkin lymphomas: a retrospective clinicopathologic study of 14 cases

Fourteen cases of primary colonic non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) with a mean age of 51.5 yrs and 64.3% of them female, are reported. While diagnoses were only obtained by cytologic or histopathologic means, 35.5% of the cases were in Stage 1e (S1e) and a further 42.6% in Stage 2e (S2e) and 7.1% in Stage 3e (S3e) according to the modified Manchester classification. 63.9% were of immunoblastic and 21.3% lymphoblastic type according to the Kiel classification. 85.2% of the tumours were located at the caecum. While acute abdomen required surgery in two patients, 85.2% of the series underwent radical interventions. 14.2% were able to receive chemotherapy with a subsequent total morbidity and mortality figures of 21.3% each. It is the authors' argument that prognosis is not solely dependent on the age, sex or the malignancy state of the tumour but more on its infiltrative stage and on the advent of treatment, whether by radical surgery and/or medical means.