Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Romania: a single-centre experience

Epidemiologic studies of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in Eastern Europe are scarce in the literature. We report the experience of the "Ion Chiricuta" Institute of Oncology in Cluj-Napoca (IOCN), Romania, in the diagnosis and outcome of patients with NHL. We studied 184 consecutive NHL patients diagnosed in the Pathology Department of IOCN during the years 2004-2006. We also obtained epidemiological data from the Northwestern (NW) Cancer Registry. In the IOCN series, the most common lymphoma subtype was diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (43.5%), followed by the chronic lymphocytic leukaemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (21.2%). T-cell lymphomas represented a small proportion (8.2%). The median age of the patients was 57 years, with a male-to-female ratio of 0.94. Patients with indolent B-cell lymphomas had the best overall survival, whereas those with mantle cell lymphoma had the worst survival. The NW Cancer Registry data showed that the occurrence of NHL in the NW region of Romania was higher in men [world age-standardized incidence rate/100 000 (ASR)-5.9; 95% CI 5.1-6.6] than in women (ASR-4.1; 95% CI 3.5-4.7) with age-standardized male-to-female ratio of 1.44 (p = 0.038). Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma was the most common NHL in the NW region of Romania, accounting for 43% of all cases, followed by diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (36%). The 5-year, age-standardized cumulative relative survival for NHL in the County of Cluj in NW Romania, for the period of 2006-2010, was 51.4%, with 58.4% survival for men and 43.2% for women. Additional studies of NHL in Eastern Europe are needed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.