[Cervicofacial extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Apropos of 82 cases]

Eighty-two patients with a head and neck extranodal lymphoma were treated and followed up by the same medical team during the period 1952-1981. Most of these tumors, which frequently originated from the Waldeyer ring, evolved by nodal infiltration, first in the neck and later in the abdomen. Association of a GI tract lymphomatous process with a head and neck lymphoma is of particular interest specially regarding gastric localizations (7/82). The treatment of choice is irradiation which is able to control initial head and neck disease, but local recurrences are frequent and represent 25% of the cases. Considering 5 year survivals, it is 49% on the whole series, 57% for the 31 stage I, 41.5% for the 21 stage II; only one patient over the five stage III and IV survived 5 years. For patients with lymphoma of diffuse type, adjuvant polychemotherapy should be considered at the start of management.