Clinicopathological characteristics and therapeutic outcomes of synchronous gastric adenocarcinoma and gastric lymphoma.

BACKGROUND Synchronous primary gastric adenocarcinoma and lymphoma is a rare occurrence. The aim of the present retrospective study was to analyze the clinicopathological characteristics and therapeutic outcomes of patients with this rare condition to identify post-therapeutic prognostic factors. PATIENTS AND METHODS A PubMed and MEDLINE search was performed to identify relevant articles, using the keywords 'gastric cancer' and 'gastric malignant lymphoma', while additional articles were obtained from references within these papers. A total of 57 patients who were treated for synchronous primary gastric adenocarcinoma and lymphoma were included in the study. A retrospective review was performed on the clinical characteristics of this disease. RESULTS The median survival time for patients in this study was 81 months and the overall 1- and 5-year survival rates after therapy were 77.6% and 69.0%, respectively. The median survival period of patients with an advanced gastric cancer was significantly shorter than for early gastric cancer (p<0.001), while the depth of gastric lymphoma invasion did not significantly affect survival time. The median survival period of patients who underwent total gastrectomy was significantly shorter than that of those who underwent distal gastrectomy (p=0.035). Gastric lymphomas were significantly larger than the gastric adenocarcinomas (6.0 vs. 2.7 cm, respectively; p=0.012). CONCLUSION The prognosis for synchronous gastric adenocarcinoma and lymphoma might depend more on the behavior of the adenocarcinoma than on the lymphoma, in which case the treatment and therapeutic outcomes could depend on the adenocarcinoma status.