Clinical Analysis of 50 Cases of Primary Pulmonary Lymphoma: A Retrospective Study and Literature Review

Objective: This study aimed at to raise the awareness understanding of primary pulmonary lymphoma (PPL) by analyzing the clinical manifestation, imaging, pathology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognostic features of 50 cases of PPL. Methods: The study of 50 individuals with PPL diagnosed at the First affiliated hospital of Nanchang university between January 2009 and December 2019 was performed. Results: Overall, 27 males and 23 females were enrolled, with an average age of 57.6 ± 15.6 years. The primary symptoms included, cough (n = 37), expectoration (n = 25), sputum with blood (n = 12), and chest pain (n = 12). Two individuals had Hodgkin's lymphoma and 48 patients had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). We divided the NHL cases into mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (MALT) (n = 21), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (n = 12), small lymphocytic lymphoma (n = 2), mantle B-cell lymphoma (n = 2), follicular lymphoma (n = 1), B-cell lymphoma without further classification (n = 8), and T-cell lymphoma (n = 2). The imaging findings revealed that unilateral lung involvement was more common among the patients. The longest follow-up duration up to December 2019 was 123 months with 40 surviving patients. The 5-year overall survival and progression-free survival were 46.7% and 44.4%, respectively. Age was an independent predictive factor for the 5-year survival (hazard ratio, 8.900; P = .038), (P < .05). Conclusion: PPL is a uncommon disease with atypical clinical manifestations and is often misdiagnosed. Immunohistochemistry is currently the standard used in pathologic evaluation of PPL. MALT prognosis is better in contrast with other kinds of PPL. Surgery or radiotherapy can be considered in patients with limited lesions, and chemotherapy is the first treatment option for diffuse lesions. Age of ≥ 60 years was reported as an independent adverse predictive factor.