Abstract: Primary Lymphoma of the Brain: A Report of 19 Immunocompetent PatientsYanming XING, Zhansheng JIANG, Yanwei LI, Guangru XIECorrespondence to: Yanmin XING, E-mail: xingyanmin@163.comSynergistic Chinese and Western Medicine Cancer Center of Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060,ChinaAbstract Objective: To evaluate the clinical characteristics, treatment methods and prognosis of immunocompetent patientswith primary lymphoma of the brain (PLB), and to investigate the reasonable therapeutic regimens based on the literature. Methods:Clinical data of 19 immunocompetent patients with PLB, who were admitted to our hospital between January 2000 and June 2009, wereretrospectively reviewed. The clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis were analyzed with SPSS16.0 statistic software. Results:Of the 19 patients, 7 were male and 12 were female, with a median age of 55 years ( range: 43～75 years ). The 1-, 3-, and 5-year accu-mulated survival rates of the 19 cases were 8.0%, 39.7% and 13.2%, respectively, with a median survival time of 22 months. Twelve ofthe total patients suffered from unifocal PLB and the other 7 from multi-focal PLB. Pathologic diagnosis revealed that the cases ofB-cell origin amounted to 94.7% of the total ( 18/19 ), with diffuse large cell lymphoma most commonly seen. Sixteen of the patientsunderwent surgical procedures and the other 3 received stereotactic brain biopsy. High-dose methotrexate was administered in only 2cases. Log-Rank test indicated that mode of incidence, i.e., unifocal or multi-focal lesion, had a significant effect on patient survival (P = 0.001 ).Conclusion: Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the incidence of PLB in immunocompetent people. Thecurrent therapeutic efficacy has not been optimistic, with an unfavorable prognosis in the patients suffering multi-focal PLB. Chemo-therapy plays a very important role in the comprehensive treatment of this lymphoma. In clinical practice, chemotherapy with high-dosemethotrexate as the basis plus radiotherapy can prolong the overall survival of PLB patients.Keywords Central nervous system neoplasm; Primary lymphoma of the brain; Treatment; Prognosis