Alimentary TractHelicobacter heilmannii–associated primary gastric low-grade MALT lymphoma: Complete remission after curing the infection☆,☆☆,★
Section snippets
Patients and methods
We investigated 5 patients with primary gastric low-grade MALT lymphoma associated with H. heilmannii (former Gastrospirillum hominis) infection. Lymphomas were detected in routine biopsy specimens sent to our central pathologist (M.S.). At that time, the referring physicians were asked to enroll the patients according to the study protocol, as described previously.15 Briefly, at all endoscopic examinations before and after treatment, 2 biopsy specimens were obtained from the antrum and 2 from
Clinical data
Five patients with H. heilmannii–associated primary gastric low-grade MALT lymphoma aged 42, 60, 71, 75, and 79 years (3 men, 2 women) were studied (Table 1).
Sex (M/F) 3/2 Median age, yr (range) 71 (42–79) Tumor stage EI 5 Localization of lymphoma Antrum 3 Corpus 2 Endoscopic appearance Tumor 5 Median tumor size, cm (range) 1 (1–4)
Treatment results
The first course of treatment cured H. heilmannii
Discussion
We report clinical, microbiological, and molecular results on primary gastric MALT lymphoma associated with H. heilmannii infection. Antibiotic treatment of the organism, as established for H. pylori infection,23 resulted in its disappearance, and eradication of H. heilmannii resulted in complete remission of the MALT lymphoma in all 5 patients. According to recent studies that have linked chronic H. pylori infection to the development of MALT lymphoma,9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 21 this finding
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Prof. Adrian Lee, Sydney, Australia, for critically reading the manuscript and Prof. Joseph Eisenburg, Munich, Germany, for his help in the preparation of this study. They also thank Dr. W. Ordnung, Specialist in Internal Medicine, Bad Kissingen, Germany, for his support during the study, and Astra (Wedel, Germany) for supplying omeprazole 40-mg capsules (Antra forteR).
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Address requests for reprints to: Andrea Morgner, M.D., Medical Department I, Technical University of Dresden, Fetscherstrasse 74, D-01307 Dresden, Germany. e-mail: [email protected]; fax: (49) 351-458-4394.
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Supported by funds from the the Deutsche Krebshilfe (70-225I).
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This paper is dedicated to the pathologist Prof. Konrad Ludwig Heilmann, who passed away in 1991.