The role of surgery in the treatment of gastric lymphoma]

Less than 5% of gastric malignancies are gastric lymphomas. Treatment attitudes have considerably changed in the past 15 years. The international guidelines emphasize the decreasing importance of surgical treatment. The authors summarize the national guidelines concerning the treatment of gastric MALT lymphomas in the mirror of international literature. In addition, a comparative analysis of patients operated on for gastric cancer and gastric lymphoma at our institute from 1993 until 2002 will also be presented, with a special regard to factors influencing survival.