Need to Inspect the Total Gastrointestinal Tract of Patients With Malignant Lymphomas

Abstract

Background/aim: Malignant lymphoma (ML) cases with overlapping gastrointestinal (GI) lesions are often encountered. We aimed to elucidate the importance of examining the GI tract in patients with ML and assess the overlap rate.

Patients and methods: We analysed 190 patients diagnosed with GI MLs. We compared the overlap rates among the different histopathological types.

Results: Twenty-five (13.2%) patients had overlapping GI lesions in more than two segments. The overlap rates were 100% in mantle cell lymphomas (MCL), 27.6% in follicular lymphomas (FL), and 16.3% in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL). MCL, FL, and DLBCL cases showed significantly higher overlap rates than mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma cases (p<0.01). About 64.0% of cases of ML with overlapping lesions involved the small intestine.

Conclusion: In GI ML cases, it is ideal to examine the entire GI tract by esophagogastroduodenoscopy, colonoscopy, and capsule endoscopy and/or balloon-assisted endoscopy, especially in MCL, FL, and DLBCL.

Keywords: B-cell lymphoma; Non-Hodgkin lymphoma; balloon-assisted endoscopy; capsule endoscopy; extranodal malignant lymphoma; follicular lymphoma; gastrointestinal malignant lymphoma; mantle cell lymphoma.