Primary T-cell lymphoma of the gastrointestinal tract is a very difficult disease entity to diagnose, and has an extremely poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to determine the early diagnostic accuracy for gastrointestinal T-cell lymphoma by gastroenterologists.

Between January 2000 and October 2010, the clinical features of 15 patients with primary gastrointestinal T-cell lymphomas, including endoscopic findings, radiologic diagnosis, endoscopic biopsy findings, and final diagnosis, were retrospectively reviewed.

The most common initial presenting symptoms of primary gastrointestinal T-cell lymphomas was abdominal pain (n=11, 73%). The anatomic location of the primary lesion the small bowel (n=8, 53%), colon (n=5, 33%), and stomach (n=3, 20%). There were no cases of T-cell lymphomas diagnosed based on clinical symptoms, radiologic findings, or endoscopic findings without biopsy alone. Pathologic confirmation of T-cell lymphomas by endoscopic examination was achieved in 7 cases (64%) and the remaining cases (n=8, 53%) were diagnosed with T-cell lymphomas based on pathologic examination after surgery.

All of the patients with primary T-cell lymphomas of the gastrointestinal tract were diagnosed exclusively by endoscopic or surgical pathologic examainations, suggesting that gastroenterologists should scrutinize and suspect this disease with caution due to atypical gastrointestinal ulcers.