primary gasterointestinal lymphoma, clinicopathologic study of 49 small intestinal lymphoma casess and the treatment option of choice

introduction: a study was made conserning 142 patients who were suffering from gastrointestinal lymphoma, were seen at the department of hematology and oncology, esfahan medical school, during the period 1982-2002. method: all patients had laparotomy, and biopsy of the site lesion. histopathological subtypes were done in the international working formulation. stage groupings were done applying the crowther and blackledge staging system. the post-laparotomy was made depending on the patient's general condition, the completeness of surgery and histological subtype. results: there were 52 cases of gastrointestinal lymphoma in the stomach, 49 in the small intestine, 12 in the ileocecal region, 22 in the rectosigmoid and in seven of the cases, multiple sites in the gastrointestinal tract were involved. conclusion: the overall survival rate was 47.8% at 5 years. early stage disease and high-grade lymphoma have a better prognosis if treated adequately. patients who had complete surgical removal of primary tumour (befor any metastasis) had a longer survival.