[Retrospective analysis on 21 patients with follicular lymphoma]

We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of the 21 patients with follicular lymphoma admitted to our institution from 1977 to 1994. The frequency of follicular lymphoma was 9.1% in the 231 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Overall survival rates at 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years were 90.2%, 78.2%, and 52.1%, respectively. The median follow-up of surviving patients and time to treatment failure (TTF) was 43 months and 30 months, respectively. The median time from disease progression to death was 171 days. In univariate analysis, factors associated with poor survival were stage IV (Ann Arbor staging system), anemia (hemoglobin level less than 10g/dl), bone marrow involvement, two or more extranodal sites, and failure in induction of complete remission (CR) in the entire course. Factors associated with short TTF were anemia, bone marrow involvement, and failure in induction of CR. In multivariate analysis, induction of CR affected survival and TTF independently.