Pathologic profile of gastrointestinal lymphoma in Egypt

ABSTRACT

A study was made on 89 Egyptian patients with malignant lymphoma whose initial clinical presentation was at gastrointestinal tract. The case material was compiled during 1982-1986 from a consecutive pathology series examine at NCI, Cairo, and private pathology laboratories. Gastrointestinal lymphoma comprised 33.21% of the total extranodal lymphoma. The distribution was 40.44% in the stomach, 34.83% in small intestine and 24.71% in colon. Males predominated with a sex ratio of 3.91. The median age was 47.6 years for gastric lymphoma, 16.8 years for small intestinal lymphoma and 32.6 years for lymphoma of colon. Regional lymph nodes were involved in 44%. Histologically, all the cases were non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and were classified according the NCI sponsored "working formulation". In gastric lymphoma, the intermediate grade was the commonest type comprising 69.44%, in small intestinal lymphoma the high grade predominated [54.84%] and in lymphoma of colon, both intermediate and high grades were seen comprising 59.09% and 36.36%