Pretreatment risk factors for overall survival in patients with gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal mucosa associated lymphoid tissue lymphomas.

PURPOSE The aim of this 10-year retrospective study was to investigate prognostic clinical and laboratory factors significant for the outcome of patients with mucosa associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma. METHODS The study involved 87 patients diagnosed with MALT lymphoma: 37 (42.5%) with gastrointestinal (GI) and 50 (57.5%) with non-GI localization. The following pretreatment laboratory parameters were analyzed: hemoglobin, serum albumin and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level, beta2-microglobulin (bgr;2-M) and bacteriological (H.pylori) status. Estimated clinical features were: stage of disease, ECOG performance status (PS), tumor mass, number of extranodal localizations, presence of B symptomatology, splenomegaly and enlarged lymph nodes. Diagnosis of MALT lymphoma was based on histopathological analysis of tissue samples, obtained by endoscopy or surgery. RESULTS The median disease-free survival (DFS) was 36 months and the 5-year overall survival (OS) was 64%. OS rate of patients with non-GI localization was higher compared with patients with GI localization (p=0.001). Multivariate analysis showed hypoalbuminemia to be the most significant parameter associated with poor OS (p<0.001) for both patient groups. The most significant prognostic factor for poor OS in patients with GI localization was LDH level (p=0.031), while hypoalbuminemia was the most significant prognostic factor for poor OS in the group with non-GI disease localization (p=0.001). CONCLUSION Proper therapeutic approach for MALT lymphoma patients could be planned taking into consideration poor prognostic parameters, i.e. hypoalbuminemia and elevated LDH for GI patients and hypoalbuminemia for non- GI lymphoma patients.