Survival of patients with gastric lymphoma in Germany and in the United States

Background and Aim This study aims to examine survival for gastric lymphomas and its main subtypes, mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma (MALT), and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), in Germany and in the United States. Methods Data for patients diagnosed in 1997–2010 were used from 10 population-based German cancer registries and compared to the data from the US Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) 13 registries database. Patients age 15–74 diagnosed with gastric lymphomas were included in the analysis. Period analysis and modeled period analysis were used to estimate 5-year and 10-year relative survival (RS) in 2002–2010 and survival trends from 2002–2004 to 2008–2010. Results Overall, the database included 1534 and 2688 patients diagnosed with gastric lymphoma in 1997–2010 in Germany and in the United States, respectively. Survival was substantially higher for MALT (5-year and 10-year RS: 89.0% and 80.9% in Germany, 93.8% and 86.8% in the United States) than for DLBCL (67.5% and 59.2% in Germany, and 65.3% and 54.7% in the United States) in 2002–2010. Survival was slightly higher among female patients and decreased by age for gastric lymphomas combined and its main subtypes. A slight, nonsignificant, increase in the 5-year RS for gastric lymphomas combined was observed in Germany and the United States, with increases in 5-year RS between 2002–2004 and 2008–2010 from 77.1% to 81.0% and from 77.3% to 82.0%, respectively. Five-year RS of MALT exceeded 90% in 2008–2010 in both countries. Conclusions Five-year RS of MALT meanwhile exceeds 90% in both Germany and the United States, but DLBCL has remained below 70% in both countries.