OBJECTIVETo explore clinicopathologic characteristics, surgical features and prognostic factors in patients with primary gastrointestinal lymphoma(PGIL) in order to provide evidence for optimizing surgical treatment.

METHODSClinicopathological data of 57 PGIL patients undergoing abdominal surgery in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between October 1990 and January 2015 were retrospectively collected. The survival rates were compared among patients with different clinicopathologic characteristics by Kaplan-Meier method, while Cox regression model was employed to analyze the prognostic factors.

RESULTSAmong 57 patients, 43 were male and 14 were female, with a median age of 48 (range 16 to 80) years. Seventeen (29.8%) cases were classified as Musshoff I( stage, 19 (33.3%) cases as II( stage, 9 (15.8%) cases as III( stage, and 12(21.1%) cases as IIII( stage. Forty-four (77.2%) cases underwent selective operation, 13(22.8%) cases underwent emergent operation due to acute abdomen. Thirty-two(56.1%) cases had radical resection, 18 (31.6%) cases had partial resection and the rest 7(12.3%) cases failed to perform resection. Four (7.0%) cases received simple surgical operation, and 53 (93.0%) cases received comprehensive treatment, including 5(8.8%) cases with preoperative chemotherapy and surgery, 40 (70.2%) cases with surgery and postoperative chemotherapy, and 8 (14.0%) cases with surgery and perioperative chemotherapy. Stage III( and IIII( accounted for 76.9%(10/13) in patients undergoing emergent operation and accounted for 25.0%(11/44) in patients undergoing selective operation, whose difference was statistically significant (χ=9.503, P=0.002). Univariate prognostic analysis showed that T lymphocyte source pathological cell phenotype (P=0.000), clinical Musshoff stage III( and IIII((P=0.001), emergent operation (P=0.000) and incomplete tumor resection(P=0.007) had worse 5-year overall survival. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that tumor pathological cell phenotype (HR=13.75, 95%CI:3.546-53.308, P=0.000) and surgical timing (HR=7.497, 95%CI:1.163-48.313, P=0.034) were independent prognostic risk factors of patients with stage I( and II(.

CONCLUSIONSSurgical operation is an important part of comprehensive treatment for PGIL. T lymphocyte source and ulcerative lymphoma indicates poorer prognosis.