Genotypic characterization and multivariate survival analysis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in Taiwan

In Taiwan, as in other areas of Asia, the incidence of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is low. A retrospective analysis was conducted to elucidate the clinicopathologic features of CLL patients in Taiwan. Of the 47 cases of CLL enrolled in this study, 45 were immunophenotyped as B-CLL; the other 2 were T-CLL. It was found that the lower the Binet and Rai stages of the B-CLL, the longer patients survive (p = 0.0131 and 0.0142, respectively). Univariate analysis showed that fatigue, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly and anemia are associated with poor survival with p values of 0.0203, 0.0184, 0.0001 and 0.171, respectively. By multivariate analysis with Cox's proportional hazard model, hepatomegaly and decrease in body weight were the two most significant predictors of survival. However, molecular parameters of kappa or lambda immunoglobulin (Ig) gene rearrangement or double allele rearrangement of Ig gene did not significantly increase the predictability of the prognosis.