Endoscopic staging of low-grade gastric MALT lymphoma.
BACKGROUND
Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) has already proven useful in the assessment of submucosal lesions, and the staging of gastrointestinal cancer, particularly gastric MALT-type lymphoma. The goal of this paper was EUS staging.


METHODS
24 patients (10 females, 14 males) with a median age of 56 years and possibly gastric MALT lymphoma (25 cases) were studied using videoendoscopy, biopsies, and echoendoscopy with 7.5- and 20-MHz radial EUS, and also with 12- and 20-MHz miniprobes (MPs). Nineteen patients were definitely evaluated (7 females, 12 males) as having 20 MALT-type lymphomas, as five patients were post-hoc disregarded when an invasive, high-grade gastric lymphoma (3c) or plasmocytoma (2c) was subsequently demonstrated. Of these 19 patients, all had T1 lesions except for two with T2 lesions; one patient had a gastroduodenal T1 lymphoma. Echographic findings with MPs were compared to EUS (gold standard) and histology both before and after eradication. Then, patients were followed up every 1-3-6 months using videoendoscopy and MPs.


RESULTS
Echoendoscopy correctly identified T stages in 90% of cases. MPs identified T stages in 88% of cases, and N stages in 33% of cases, with results being slightly inferior to those obtained with conventional EUS (91 vs. 45%); they were consequently used for follow-up. After eradication, all but two patients are in complete remission and have been followed every 1-3-6 months using MPs without echographic abnormalities, except for a patient who relapsed.
Varas
M J
MJ
Unit of Echoendoscopy, Centro Médico Teknon, CIMA, Centro Médico Delfos, Barcelona, Spain. varas@dr.teknon.es
Fabra
R
R
Abad
R
R
Turró
J
J
Espinós
J C
JC
Bargalló
D
D
Miquel
J M
JM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019160:Endosonography; D005260:Female; D005773:Gastroscopy; D006801:Humans; D018442:Lymphoma, B-Cell, Marginal Zone / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology*