Author(s)

Noriyasu Fukushima, Fukushima Itamura, Chisako Urata, Mariko Tanaka, Takashi Hisatomi, Yasushi Kubota, Eisaburo Sueoka, Shinya Kimura

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We analyzed the relationship between the clinical characteristics, comorbidity, average relative dose intensity (aRDI) and outcome in patients of over 75 years old with malignant lymphoma. Of the 98 patients studied, the mean age was 79.9 years, and 68 patients (69.4%) had B-cell lymphomas, corresponding to mainly diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The 5-year overall survival rate was 32.2% in 97 malignant lymphoma patients. T/NK subtype, poor performance status (PS) and high-intermediate/high international prognostic index (IPI) were found to be predictive of significantly poorer overall survival, as is the case in young patients. Correlation between comorbidity index and survival rate was not observed. We also analyzed the aRDI of cyclophosphamide and pirarubicin for 64/97 patients. The proportion of patients receiving ≤84% of the planned DI during five cycles gradually increased. Most patients could not maintain aRDI ≥85%. However, overall survival was not significantly different between patients with aRDI ≥0.85 and those with aRDI ≤0.84. In conclusion, the prognoses of very elderly patients with malignant lymphoma were not so poor when they were appropriately treated with modification of the applied dose and the duration of chemotherapy according to their status.

Malignant Lymphoma, Elderly, Comorbidity, Relative Dose Intensity

N. Fukushima, F. Itamura, C. Urata, M. Tanaka, T. Hisatomi, Y. Kubota, E. Sueoka and S. Kimura, "Clinical Presentation and Outcome in Patients of over 75 Years Old with Malignant Lymphoma—Clinical Presentation and Outcome in Elderly Lymphoma Patients," International Journal of Clinical Medicine, Vol. 2 No. 3, 2011, pp. 246-253. doi: 10.4236/ijcm.2011.23039.