Gastric Lymphoma

For the most part, gastric lymphoma is not a very common affliction. In fact this type of lymphoma actually only accounts for less than 1.5 % of all the malignancies that are stomach related today and less than 2 percent of all lymphomas.

Gastric lymphoma is primarily found in people as they age and is typically found as humans enter their sixties. The symptoms that one can expect to see when this is present are some degree of weight loss, a certain amount of unexplained fatigue, some early satiety and fairly acute epigastric pain. There are other less noticeable symptoms but these are the most common and the easiest to recognize.

When a gastric lymphoma is suspected a series of tests must be preformed to help make the diagnosis. The lymphoma is hard to tell apart from other stomach ailments in the initial stages. The lesions themselves usually resemble a standard ulcer and are extremely jagged and show a quite think pattern, which is shown on a contrast radiographs.

The main ways that you are diagnosed with gastric lymphoma is through a biopsy, which is done on a sample taken during an endoscopy. There are several ways that the sample can be obtained and there is a chance that more than one sample may be needed in order to officially diagnose the lesion. In fact it is not uncommon for a larger sample to be needed to make a positive diagnosis.

Various methods of imaging may be used in order to effectively stage the gastric lymphoma including an endoscopic ultrasound and the standard CT or CAT scan. Along with these tests the hematological parameters are checked to help exclude the possibility of leukemia from the realm. It seems that lymphoma is indicated if there is a raised LDH level.

Certain groups of people are at a higher risk for the development of gastric lymphoma. These include but are not limited to people with an active HIV infection and / or folks that have been on an immunosuppressant drug therapy for an extended or longer than normal term. Certainly anyone can be diagnosed with it but these two groups have a much higher than normal risk factor.

If the gastric lymphoma is found to be of the B-cell variety then radiation or chemotherapy is the best option for treatment, antibiotic treatment works well should the lymphoma be of the MALT variety and in severe cases, a gastrectomy is indicated followed by a regimen of chemotherapy.

No matter how you look at it, if you are diagnosed with gastric lymphoma it is not going to be an easy road back to health. You have to get diagnosis and treatment as quickly as you can.

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