Clinicopathologic features and prognostic factors of primary extranodal non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in Turkey

Clinical, histopathologic, and prognostic features of 114 patients with pri mary extranodal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were evaluated. Median age of the pa tients was 48 (range, 15-76) and the ratio of male/female was 55/59. Thirty -seven patients had stage 1, 55 patients stage II, 6 patients stage III, an d 16 patients stage IV. The most common sites of primary extranodal non-Hod gkin's lymphoma were the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and head-neck region. Stomach (66%) and tonsils (33%) were the most frequently involved organ in GI tract and head-neck region, respectively. Eighty percent of patients had intermediate or high-grade lymphomas, 20% had low-grade subtypes. Complete remission was achieved in 83% of all patients with chemotherapy +/- radiot herapy +/- surgery. Overall and disease-free survival at 5 years were 63% a nd 59%, respectively. In conclusion, clinical and histopathologic character istics and prognosis of our cases with primary extranodal non-Hodgkin's lym phoma were usually similar to those of the cases in Western countries with some differences in the incidence of some specific primary extranodal non-H odgkin's lymphomas and in the histopathologic subtypes.