Endoscopic diagnosis of gastric lymphomas

From January 1970 to June 1979, 180 gastroscopies were performed in patients affected by lymphoma (168 in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and 12 in patients with Hodgkin's disease). A gastric localization was evidenced in 48 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (15 primaries and 33 secondaries), and no lesions were found in patients with Hodgkin's disease. The gastroscopies were accompanied by histological samples in all the cases and by cytological samples in most of them. The examination allowed a histological classification in 96% of the cases. The endoscopic aspect most frequently observed (48%) was vegetation, which was often associated with multiple ulcerations. The most frequent site (67%) was the vertical portion of the stomach. Gastroscopy was also utilized in the follow-up of 22 of the 48 patients affected by gastric lymphoma: in two of these, gastric localizations missed at other examinations were found.