Abstract

Background/Aims
There were few reports of primary colorectal lymphoma mainly focusing on the colonoscopic findings. The aim of this study was to review the colonoscopic findings and clinical characteristics of primary colorectal lymphomas by their cellular origin. Methods: Clinical information was retrospectively obtained from 18 cases with primary colorectal lymphoma from January 1994 to December 2001. The extent of disease was defined as focal or diffuse. Colonoscopic images were reviewed and classified into superficial, ulcerative, ulceroinfiltrative, and fungating types. Results: The study included thirteen men and five women, with a mean age of 48.6±13.3 years at disease onset. The most common presenting symptom was abdominal pain and the most frequent involvement was cecum. The endoscopic type was fungating in 6 cases, ulceroinfiltrative in 5 cases, ulcerative in 5 cases, and superficial in 2 cases. The lymphomas were B-cell lineage in 13 cases and T-cell lineage in 5 cases. Between B-cell and T-cell lymphomas, there was no statistically significant difference in age, gender, and the stage of the disease. All B-cell lymphomas were focally located, whereas 80% of T-cell lymphomas were diffuse (p=0.002). T-cell lymphomas were classified as ulcerative type in four cases and superficial type in one case. On the other hand, the most common colonoscopic feature of primary B-cell colorectal lymphoma was the fungating type (p=0.009). Conclusions: We found that primary colorectal lymphomas have different colonoscopic features by their cellular origin. (Intestinal Research 2003;1:22-30)

• Keywords: Primary colorectal lymphoma