Clinical, endoscopic and pathological characteristics of primary gastrointestinal T-cell and NK/T-cell lymphomas

Gastrointestinal T-cell and NK/T-cell lymphomas are relatively rare and may be difficult to diagnose. Therefore, we performed a retrospective study of the clinical, endoscopic and pathological characteristics of these lymphomas, to provide additional data on this issue.

From April 2013 to April 2021, consecutive patients diagnosed with primary gastrointestinal T-cell and NK/T-cell lymphomas were retrospectively reviewed. Their medical histories, laboratory, imaging, endoscopic, and pathology results were analyzed.

Forty-two patients were finally chosen, among whom, 24 patients had ENKTCL, 9 patients had MEITL, 2 patients had ALCL, ALK-, 1 patient had ALCL, ALK+, and 6 patients had PTCL, NOS. The median age of all the patients was 48 years old, and 73.81% (31 patients) were male. The patients' symptoms were abdominal pain, diarrhea, gastrointestinal bleeding, weight loss, fever, and others. The endoscopic results of 26 patients could be traced, and 69.23% of the patients showed multiple lesions. Ulcerative and ulceroinfiltrative lesions were common. Among the pathologic findings, necrosis, ulceration, and crypt atrophy were commonly found while epitheliotropism was relatively less common. Twelve patients (28.57%) had a history of misdiagnosis. After a median follow-up time of 26.9 months, 26 patients (66.70%) died of the disease. The median overall survival time was 8 months.

These lymphomas had nonspecific clinical manifestations, various endoscopic features, and were likely to be misdiagnosed as other diseases. The prognosis is still poor, and more in-depth research is needed to develop more precise treatments.