Primary lymphoma of bone in adult patients

The low incidence of primary lymphoma of bone (PLB) has led to discrepancies in classification as well as difficulty in prognostication. The authors of this report used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to analyze a large, population-based cohort of adult patients with this disease. The database provides a standardized classification and documentation of outcomes and enables a meaningful evaluation of prognostic factors.

The SEER database was used to identify all patients who were diagnosed with PLB from 1973 through 2005. Survival was analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method, and the influence of clinical parameters on survival was analyzed with the log-rank test. A Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariate analysis.

Fifteen hundred adult patients with PLB were analyzed. The 5-year and 10-year survival rates for adult patients were 58% and 45%, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that younger age and localized disease were independent predictors of survival. It is noteworthy that the incidence of disease, as determined by the annual percentage change, increased during the study period (P < .05).

This analysis of a large cohort of adults with PLB indicated that the only identifiable prognostic indicators were localized disease and younger age. The authors concluded that future treatment for patients with PLB need to be based on strict staging criteria and adherence to successful published protocols using collaborative clinical trials.