Background/aims: Primary gastrointestinal follicular lymphoma (GI-FL) is very rare and its natural course is barley known. This study aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics of primary gastrointestinal follicular lymphoma (GI-FL).
Methodology: From May 1996 to October 2008, the records of five patients diagnosed with primary GI-FL were retrieved from pathological files and retrospectively analyzed in terms of characteristics of endoscopic and clinical findings.
Results: The five patients consisted of 3 males and 2 females with a median age of 52 years. Abdominal pain was the most common (n=4, 80%) symptom. The most frequent site was the terminal ileum in the small bowel (n=3, 60%). Endoscopic findings were 3 of mass forming type, 1 of irregular ulcer type and 1 of whitish granular type. Three cases (60%) had a component of diffuse large B cell lymphoma. All cases received chemotherapy. While complete remission occurred in every patient, relapse occurred in the two patients with a higher grade and more advanced stage than the other cases. At a median follow-up time of 37 months (range, 27-58 months; mean, 38.8 months), four patients (80%) were disease free and one patient had died of cardiovascular disease.
Conclusions: In South Korea, primary gastrointestinal follicular lymphoma is very rare and symptomatic. Endoscopic findings were variable from early whitish granular lesions to advanced mass forming lesions.