OBJECTIVETo explore the morbidity, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, metastasis, treatment and prognosis of primary breast lymphoma (PBL).

METHODSFrom January 1960 to August 2007, 49 cases with PBL were treated among 22811 cases of breast malignancy and 7337 cases of malignant lymphoma. The clinical data of these 49 patients, included gender, age, pathologic type, breast X ray and B ultrasound examination results, involved lymph nodes and organs, treatment, survival time, were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTSFrom 1960 to 2007, the incidence rate of PBL in Tianjin Municipality was 59/10 millions; in details, the incidence rate of PBL for every 10 years was 2/10 millions, 3/10 millions, 0, 13/10 millions and 32/10 millions, respectively. According to circle graph of age, PBL occurred frequently in female aged 30 to 59 years. Most of this group of PBL was non-Hodgkin lymphoma (48 cases). No typical characteristics was found with the examination of breast X ray, B ultrasound and frozen section pathology. Bone marrow (9 cases), lung (7 cases), meninges (4 cases) and ovary (4 cases) were frequently involved organs. The overall 5-year survival rate was 6.1% for the group. The prognosis in patients with radical mastectomy combined chemotherapy was much better than that in patient received super to local mastectomy plus chemotherapy or simple tumor resection plus chemotherapy (5-year survival rates were 21.4%, 0, 0, respectively).

CONCLUSIONSPBL is a kind of rare lymphoma with incidence increasing sharply in the past few decades. The clinical manifestation is atypical. Diagnosis of PBL should adopt histological examination. Radical mastectomy combined chemotherapy could bring better prognosis, but the prognosis is still poor.