HALL CLASSIFICATION AS A PROGNOSTIC INDICATOR OF PRIMARY GASTROINTESTINAL LYMPHOMA

Primary gastrointestinal lymphomas almost exclusively consist of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with a great majority of B-cell lymphomas. Only few classification schemes of these lymphomas giving prognostic implications and separate from nodal lymphoma classifications exist. The aim of this study is not only to assess the usefulness of recently introduced Hall classification of primary gastrointestinal lymphomas, but also to check the conventional parameters dealing with the prognosis in our series. For this purpose, 44 cases of primary gastrointestinal lymphomas were studied. After proving the lymphoid origin and immunophenotypic identification, all tumors were reclassified according to the Working Formulation and classified according to the Hall classification for comparement of these two schemes from the prognostic point of view. Similarly, factors like sex, localization and tumor stage were also studied. As a result, we concluded-that the stage of the tumor is still the most important prognostic factor, but, Hall classification of primary gastrointestinal lymphomas, although limited, is also useful in predicting the outcome of the disease.