[Non-Hodgkin malignant lymphomas of the digestive tract]

Study of the histology, epidemiology and course of 106 non-Hodgkins malignant lymphomas of the digestive tract seen in Tunisia revealed the high incidence of these ML in comparison with other malignant tumours of the same site and their predominance above all in young male subjects. The classification of these lymphomas has shown that forms with a high degree of malignancy are seen much more often than forms with a low degree of malignancy: Centroblastic ML accounted for more than 50 p. 100 of the histological forms seen in the intestine. Intermediate centroblastic and immunoblastic ML predominated in the stomach. Nodular ML is very rare. Finally, an important feature in the course of these tumours is worthy of note, i.e. the prolonged survival of 9 of our patients. This survival would however appear to be related more to the stage of the disease than to the histological type and the nature of the treatment used.