Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 6, 253-260, Copyright © 1988 by American Society of Clinical Oncology
Chemotherapy following surgery for stages IE and IIE non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the gastrointestinal tract
FA Shepherd, WK Evans, G Kutas, JC Yau, P Dang, JG Scott, HA Farquharson, WH Francombe, D Bailey and MA Baker
Department of Medicine, Toronto General Hospital, Ontario, Canada.
Twenty-six patients were treated with chemotherapy following surgery for
gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (GI-NHL). The median age was 50
years (range, 20 to 76). The primary site included stomach (16 patients),
small bowel (seven), large bowel (two), and mesenteric nodes (one).
Following surgery, nine patients had macroscopic and four patients had
microscopic residual disease, and 13 were felt to have had complete
surgical resection. Thirteen patients were stage I and 13 were stage II.
Sixteen patients were treated with COPP (cyclophosphamide, vincristine,
procarbazine, prednisone), nine with CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin,
vincristine, prednisone), and one with CVP (cyclophosphamide, vincristine,
prednisone). At a median follow-up of 50 months (8+ to 178+ months) ten of
12 stage I patients and nine of 14 stage II patients remain alive. Of the
nine patients with macroscopic residual disease, four died of disease 6.5
to 11.0 months after diagnosis, and five are alive 8+ to 178+ months from
diagnosis. Fourteen of the remaining 17 patients who had complete surgical
resection are alive without disease. Death in the other three patients was
due to multiple abdominal abscesses at 12 months, adenocarcinoma of the
colon at 57 months, and dementia and progressive neurologic dysfunction at
65 months. No patient who had complete resection has relapsed or developed
systemic disease after chemotherapy. These results suggest that complete
surgical resection is an important prognostic factor and that chemotherapy
without irradiation in completely resected localized GI-NHL can prevent
local and systemic relapse resulting in long-term disease-free survival.