Primary lymphoma of the spleen. Clinical features and outcome after splenectomy.

A retrospective review was made of patients with primary splenic non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (PSL) diagnosed at surgery at Memorial Hospital between 1970 and 1981. Four patients had splenic involvement only (Group I), three patients had splenic and splenic hilar nodal involvement (Group II), and 14 had involvement of the spleen and other sites including liver (11 patients), bone marrow (eight patients), and distant abdominal lymph nodes (five patients) (Group III). Three of the seven Group I and II patients are alive without disease at 24, 42, and 144 months. There was a trend toward a longer survival for the Group I and II patients as compared with the Group III patients. Patients with truely localized PSL seem to have the same outlook as other Stage I non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients.