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Treatment of low-grade gastric MALT-lymphoma unresponsive to Helicobacter pylori therapy

A pooled-data analysis

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Abstract

The most favourable therapeutic strategy for gastric MALT-lymphoma not responding to Helicobacter pylori eradication still remains unclear, neither official guidelines nor randomised studies being available. We therefore performed a systematic review of the literature to evaluate the efficacy of different therapeutic approaches in these patients. Data regarding 315 patients were valuable, and lymphoma remission following the first therapeutic attempt was achieved in 90.1% cases. The most used therapy was radiotherapy (112 patients), followed by surgery (80 patients) and chemotherapy (68 patients), whilst a combination therapy was less frequent. Radiotherapy achieved a higher remission rate as compared to chemotherapy (97.3 vs. 85.3%; P = 0.007), being similar to surgery (97.3 vs. 92.5%; P = 0.2). No difference emerged when comparing lymphoma remission rate achieved by a single therapy with that of combined treatments (89.6 vs. 96.4%; P = 0.6). This is the first pooled-data analysis assessing the efficacy of different oncologic therapeutic approaches to treat gastric MALT-lymphoma unresponsive to H. pylori eradication. Radiotherapy seems to be the most suitable treatment in these patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy, “Nuovo Regina Margherita” Hospital, Via E. Morosini, 30, 00153, Rome, Italy

    Angelo Zullo, Cesare Hassan, Francesca Cristofari, Chiara Bassanelli & Sergio Morini

  2. Haematology, “Nuovo Regina Margherita” Hospital, Rome, Italy

    Alessandro Andriani

  3. “Regina Elena” National Cancer Institute, Rome, Italy

    Gian Paolo Spinelli & Silverio Tomao

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  1. Angelo Zullo
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  2. Cesare Hassan
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  3. Alessandro Andriani
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  4. Francesca Cristofari
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Correspondence to Angelo Zullo.

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Zullo, A., Hassan, C., Andriani, A. et al. Treatment of low-grade gastric MALT-lymphoma unresponsive to Helicobacter pylori therapy. Med Oncol 27, 291–295 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-009-9207-y

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