Gastroendoscopic biopsy diagnosis of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma

AIM: To differentially diagnose gastric lymphoma by gastroendoscopic biopsy and clinicopathology.METHODS: A retrospective review of 38 lymphoma cases diagnosed by gastroendoscopic biopsy in the period between 1984 and 1994 from gastroendoscopy files in the Department of Gastroenterology. The histology slides were examined retrospectively. Diagnostic criteria were discussed according to the new classification of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.RESULTS: Of 53400 gastroendoscopy, 1672 were malignant neoplasms of which 38 were cases of the primary gastric lymphoma as diagnosed by both endoscopic findings and histological examination. A total of 22 men and 16 women, age 16 to 82 year, with a median of 47.7 year, were included in the study. The endoscopic evaluation found 12 cases of ulcerative, 11 cases of diffusely infiltrating, six cases of massive, four cases of large mucosal fold, and five cases of mixed type. The histological evaluation resulted in 34 cases of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (89.5%), two cases with lymphoblastic type and two cases unclassified due to the crushed neoplastic cells.CONCLUSION: These findings are present in about 90% of endoscopic biopsy specimens of low-grade gastric lymphoma. The majority of the cases of the primary low-grade gastric lymphoma have morphologic and clinical features that justify their inclusion in the category of low-grade lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue.