[Gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Personal observations]

The localization, symptoms, endoscopic findings, histologic type, infiltration of bone marrow, lymphoma cell presence in the blood, and results of therapy were evaluated in 18 patients with gastrointestinal lymphoma. Only 9 patients met the criteria of primary gastrointestinal lymphoma, the remaining 9 presenting an extra-nodular localization of systemic disease, i.e. secondary lymphoma. The most common site of process was stomach, and most of the patients had histologically documented a high grade malignant lymphoma. Necessity of supplementing surgery with chemo- and/or radiotherapy was discussed. Such combined treatment should give a 10-year survival time in 60% of the treated patients (confirmed with the Kaplan-Meier's method). The authors concluded that stomach is the most common localization of gastrointestinal lymphoma, and that gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis should include peripheral blood and bone marrow haematological examinations which clearly rise the reliability of differentiation between primary or secondary lymphomas.