Survival of T- and B-Phenotype Diffuse Aggressive Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas

Survival of immunophenotyped non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs) diagnosed as diffuse mixed, diffuse large and large cell immunoblastic by the working formulation was evaluated based on phenotypic categories. These subtypes were grouped as diffuse aggressive NHLs due to their similarities, and categorized into T- and B-phenotype NHLs. There were 45 (57.7%) cases of T-NHL and 33 (42.3%) B-NHL. Major clinical factors such as sex, age, stage, B-symptoms and site of disease, as well as performance status (PS), LDH, primary site and number of extra-nodal sites involved showed equal distributions between T- and B-NHLs. Combination chemotherapeutic regimens based on doxorubicin were used in 84% of these cases. Complete remission was achieved in 73.6% of T-NHL and 74.1% of B-NHL. Median survival for the T- and B-NHL was the same over 30 months. Projected survival at 5 years was also similar, T-NHL (35%) and B-NHL (38%). Unilaterally, survival was adversely affected in stage III/IV of T-NHL and for age over 65 years for B-NHL. Survival was unfavorable for the B-NHL without B-symptoms when compared to T-NHLs. Multivariately, only sex, B-symptoms and PS significantly (P < 0.05) affected the survival of T-NHL. Although the overall results indicate that the response and survival of T- and B-NHL are similar, the differences observed on the effect of sex, age, stage, B-symptoms and PS on survival of T- and B-NHLs imply that, their influence on T-NHLs was different from that for B-NHLs. Therefore we suggest that separate prognostic models are needed for the T- and B-phenotype NHLs.