Gastrointestinal lymphoma in Western Algeria: pattern of distribution and histological subtypes (retrospective study).

Background: Primary gastrointestinal (GI) lymphomas (GIL) are uncommon diseases that can involve the whole GI tract. Considerable variation exists in the literature with respect to incidence of the various histological subtypes and sites of involvement. This study was undertaken to establish the anatomic distribution, histological subtypes and sites of GI lymphomas of patients from Western Algeria.

Methods: The case records of 58 consecutive patients with GIL diagnosed at the Pathologies Departments of Algerian west region (the Military Hospital of Oran city and the Central University Hospital of Sidi Bel Abbes city) from January 2006 to December 2013 were retrospectively evaluated for epidemiology and histopathology report. All lymphomas were reclassified according to the WHO 2008 classification.

Results: A total of 58 patients (39 male, 19 female) with mean age of 61 years and a range of 20-89 years were included in this study. Stomach was the most common site involved (70.7%). The commonest histological subtype was mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) B cell lymphoma (46.6%), followed by diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) (43.1%).The frequency of () positivity differ between gastric and intestinal location P=0.003 and correlates with the histological type P=0.01.

Conclusions: This retrospective study of patients with GI lymphoma from Western Algeria illustrates the pattern of distribution of various common and rare histological subtypes. More studies are necessary to find a potential cause, risk factor or genetic mutation that can explain these specific characteristics of GIL.