The relevance of surgical therapy of primary and secondary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the stomach with regard to multimodal treatment modalities

An analysis of our large group of patients over a time period of 20 years (1969-1989) may thus contribute to clarify this matter. Among 2046 malignant gastric tumors 85 patients (4.2%) with primary (N=76) and secondary NHL (N=9) were operated on. Although most of the tumors were located in the distal part and the middle of the stomach (stage IE: N=41; stage IIE: N=25; stage IV: N=19); 55 total gastrectomies (64.7%) and 25 subtotal distal gastrectomies were performed (resectability: 94.1%. Postoperative mortality following resection was 8.7% (N=7). 5-year survival for stage IE, IIE, and IV was 93.7%, 63.6%, and 36.6% resp. (p=0.0002). No statistically significant differences, however, could be found among the different surgical resections as well as the grade of malignancy (high malignant: N=53; low malignant: N=32). Compared to the resected patients, 5-year survival for the multimodally treated patients, mostly with advanced tumor stages (stage IIE: N=12; stage IV: N=14), was significantly (p=0.015) decreased. (orig./MG)