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The outcome of > or = 70-year-old non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients
1Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Turku University Hospital, Finland.
Purpose:
The outcome of treatment of 98 over 70-year-old patients with nonHodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is presented.
Methods And Materials:
Analysis of treatment outcome of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients age 70 years and more was carried through with special emphasis on fatal complications occurring during treatment. Study patients mainly represented intermediate or high degree of malignancy.
Results:
Complete response rate (CR) was 54% after combination chemotherapy, 22% after single agent chemotherapy, and 56% after radiotherapy (used for local disease). The overall 5-year survival was 38% for all patients and 57% for CR patients. Stage had a significant effect on both the complete response rate and survival. Survival was also significantly influenced by the malignancy grade. Fifteen patients (15%) died during treatment, many of them had another predisposing disease and markers of poor prognosis.
Conclusion:
The evaluation of individual prognostic features of each old patient should be completed prior to treatment planning.