Background: The optimal management of primary gastrointestinal lymphoma including the use of surgery remains unsettled. This prospective study aimed to determine the prognostic factors of primary gastrointestinal lymphoma and to evaluate a therapeutic strategy based on surgical tumor reduction, followed by chemotherapy adapted to the histological type of tumor and tumor removal or nonremoval.
Methods: Ninety-one patients were included (mean age, 50.4 years) with mainly gastric (61%) or several digestive tract organ (18%) involved sites in clinical stages IE (43%), IIE (27%), and IV (30%). Three therapeutic groups were defined: group I, patients with low-grade lymphoma (n = 28); group II, patients with high-grade lymphoma who had complete tumor removal (n = 24); and group III, patients with high-grade lymphoma who had only partial or no tumor removal (n = 39). Each group underwent adapted chemotherapy.
Results: The respective overall 5-year survival rates for groups I, II, and III were 81% +/- 6%, 100%, and 56% +/- 8%, respectively (P < 0.0001). By Cox multivariate analysis, the prognostic factors of survival were age under 65 (P < 0.05), gastric localization (P < 0.05), stage IE (P < 0.001), and radical or incomplete surgery (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: Combined radical surgery and chemotherapy according to histological grading is associated with prolonged remission in patients with primary digestive tract lymphoma. Moreover, compared with chemotherapy alone, incomplete resection of tumor is associated with increased survival of high-grade lymphomas.