Gastric adenocarcinoma after gastric lymphoma.

Three men and one woman developed intestinal-type moderately or poorly differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma 4 to 15 years after the diagnosis of gastric lymphoma. Treatment of the lymphomas had included partial gastrectomy and follow-up radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Review of the literature reveals an additional 12 patients who developed adenocarcinoma 3.5 to 34 years (median, 14.5 years) after diagnosis of gastric lymphoma. In the total series of 16 patients, only four were women, who tended to be younger (median age, 36.5 years) than the men (median, 48.5 years) when lymphoma was diagnosed. Patients with gastric lymphoma seem to have an increased incidence of gastric adenocarcinoma. Carcinoma after gastric lymphoma often arises in the distal stomach and appears to occur irrespective of the type of therapy for the lymphoma.