A clinicopathological study of seven cases of primary high-grade malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of the central nervous system.

Seven cases of primary non-Hodgkin's lymphomas of the central nervous system are described. Six cases were diagnosed after pathologic examination of surgical material; in one case, a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, the diagnosis was made at autopsy. The mean age of the patients was 52 years. The lesions were supratentorial in all cases, and unifocal in 6: the autopsy case had multicentric lesions. The cytologic examination of the cerebrospinal fluid was performed in 3 cases and was negative. The most common histologic type was immunoblastic lymphoma. The mean postoperative survival time was 12 months; in 2 cases, surgery combined with radiotherapy prolonged the survival for more than 2 years. Leptomeningeal involvement was considered to indicate a poor prognosis.