Addition of Rituximab to Chemotherapy Reduced the Rate of Surgery for Gastric-DLBCL Without Increasing Early Mortality.

Background: We evaluated surgical trends for gastric diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (gDLBCL) before and after the approval of rituximab and whether an association of early mortality existed in patients treated after approval of rituximab.

Patients And Methods: We utilized the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) 18 database to extract data on patients with gDLBCL diagnosed between 1983-2012. Primary site-specific cancer-directed surgery using SEER site-specific surgical codes and annual trends were analyzed.