Primary Pulmonary Lymphoma: A Retrospective Analysis of 27 Cases in a Single Tertiary Hospital

The objective of this study was to improve the understanding of primary pulmonary lymphoma (PPL) for clinicians.

We enrolled 27 patients diagnosed with PPL in the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from January 2000 to December 2016. The clinical manifestations, imaging findings, pathologic features, treatments and prognosis of the patients were collected.

The male to female ratio was 1.5:1 and the average age was 54.6 ± 15.7 years old. Nine patients were asymptomatic. The main manifestations were cough, expectoration, bloody sputum and fever. The imaging findings presented as nodule, mass, pneumonia or consolidation. There were 2 cases of Hodgkin's lymphoma, 18 cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and 7 cases of undifferentiated lymphoma. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cases were divided into T-cell lymphoma (n = 2), mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (MALT) (n = 11), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (n = 3), small B-cell lymphoma (n = 1) and plasmacytoid B-cell lymphoma (n = 1). Ten MALT cases survived and 1 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma case has been in stable condition for 71 months after surgery and chemotherapy. The international prognostic index was related to the prognosis of PPL.

The clinical manifestations and imaging findings of PPL were nonspecific. The prognosis of MALT was better than other types of PPL. The International prognostic index can be used for predicting the prognosis of PPL.