OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical and pathological features, optimal treatment and prognostic factors in primary intestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. METHODS The clinical presentations, pathological features and therapeutic results of 32 primary intestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were retrospectively analyzed. Statistical analyses were performed with SSPS 10.0 software. RESULTS The most frequently site of the lesions in the 32 patients was the large intestine (n = 16, 50.0%), followed by small intestine (n = 8, 25.0%), ileocaecal region (n = 6, 18.8%) and multiple intestinal sites (n = 2, 6.2%). Clinical presentations were as follows: abdominal pain and/or distention (n = 26, 81.2%); abdominal mass (n = 14, 43.8%); diarrhea (n = 12, 37.5%); melena (n = 10, 31.3%); weight loss (n = 10, 31.3%) and fever (n = 8, 25.0%). Twenty-one patients (65.6%) were diagnosed as B-cell lymphoma, 15 (46.9%) were diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Ten patients (31.2%) were diagnosed as T-cell lymphoma and one (3.1%) as histiocytic lymphoma. Twenty-nine patients were treated initially by surgery with or without chemotherapy, 19 of them (59.4%) achieved complete response. Based on Cox multivariate analysis, stage III - IV, B symptoms and T cell phenotype of the disease were the independent adverse prognostic factors (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS The clinical presentation of primary intestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are not specific clinically. Most of the histological types are diffuse large B-cell type lymphoma. Complete resection combined with chemotherapy may be the best effective approach for treatment of this disease. The prognosis of this disease are correlated with the stage, B symptoms and T cell phenotype.