It was considered timely to review the pathological and staging classifications of GI tract lymphoma. This meeting specifically did not address the question of treatment; the management of GI tract lymphoma could perhaps form the basis for a further workshop. The following recommendations were made: to adopt the Isaacson histological classification, that all patients with GI tract lymphoma be investigated uniformly, to record the prognostic factors described above, to use the staging classification shown above. It is hoped that these recommendations will be taken into account in the design of future clinical trials of therapy for GI tract lymphoma.

No abstract

A total of 417 evaluable patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphomas were diagnosed between January 1974 and December 1983 at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Beirut, Lebanon. Of these, 179 (43%) patients had nodal lymphomas, and 183 (44%) had extranodal lymphomas. The commonest lymphoma was diffuse large cell (27%), followed by large cell immunoblastic (21%). The histopathologic pattern was follicular in 18% of the nodal lymphomas and in 5.3% of the extranodal forms. The most common site of extranodal lymphoma was the gastrointestinal tract (46.5%), followed by Waldeyer's ring (19%). Small intestinal lymphomas were three times more common than gastric lymphomas. Immunoproliferative small intestinal disease (IPSID) was diagnosed in 20 of 59 patients who had primary small intestinal lymphoma. Of the 34 patients who had Waldeyer's ring lymphoma, 7 had gastrointestinal involvement at some time during the course of the disease. Nodal lymphomas were associated with poor prognostic factors: 82% were diffuse; 77% had advanced disease at presentation; 77% had intermediate- or high-grade malignancy lymphoma; 40% had marrow involvement; and 46% had B symptoms. In children, the most common lymphoma was Burkitt's, and 80% of pediatric lymphomas were high-grade malignancy. In conclusion, this study delineates the special features of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in the Middle East: The presence of IPSID; the high incidence of extranodal forms, in particular the intestinal ones; and the rarity of follicular lymphomas.

Malignant struma ovarii is an extremely rare tumor. Two new cases are described and current perspectives provided. Both cases are examples of the mixed form of the disease, and both were treated by surgery alone. One patient underwent total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo‐oophorectomy; the other had unilateral salpingo‐oophorectomy. Both patients remained free of recurrent disease at 20 and 33 months from diagnosis. The controversies relating to therapy and diagnosis are discussed in detail.