Abstract: Objective To study the clinical characteristics and outcome of patients with primary pulmonary non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (PPL). Methods The clinical features, diagnostic methods, pathological types and outcome of 30 patients with PPL diagnosed in PUMC Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Results Of these 30 patients, 46.7% of patients were male and the median age was 46 years. These patients didn’t have specific clinical symptoms and radiological features and 20% patients were asymptomatic. The median time from onset to diagnosis of all patients was 8 months. The positive diagnostic rate of transbronchial lung biopsy, lung biopsy guided by computer tomography, and lung biopsy by thoracoscopy was 33.3%, 50% and 100%, respectively. The mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma was main type in PLL, which was found in 56.7% patients. 7 of 30 patients were dead after 39 months of median follow-up time. Compared with patients with non-MALT lymphoma, patients with MALT lymphoma had lower international prognostic index (IPI) score and better outcome. Conclusions The PPL is a rare extra-nodular lymphoma, which is difficult to diagnose. The patients with non-MALT lymphoma have better outcome in PPL.

Key words: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, lung, primary, clinical characteristics