Introduction:The prognostic significance of absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) has been an area of debate in non-Hodgkin-lymphoma (NHL). Several studies have reported that lymphocyte count during and after chemotherapy independently predict outcome in patients with acute myelocytic lymphoma (AML), follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Furthermore, lymphocytopenia is a poor prognostic marker in initial staging of NHL and in relapsed DLBCL. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether ALC at time of diagnosis is an independent predictor of overall survival (OS) in NHL.
Methods:We retrospectively reviewed patients with aggressive NHL who were seen at hospitals affiliated with Saint Luke's Health System from January 2000 to December 2017 with at least 2 year longitudinal follow up after diagnosis. We retrieved 447 patients with histopathological diagnosis of DLBCL, Burkitt's Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Grade IIIB, primary Effusion Lymphoma, B-cell Lymphoma unclassifiable, and high-grade B cell lymphoma. Through chart review we determined pathological and clinical characteristics of these patients, calculated the ALC at time of diagnosis, studied the treatment patterns, response to therapy and survival in our center. ALC at time of diagnosis was obtained on 358 patients based on data availability.
Results:A multivariate analysis was conducted to see if ALC at time of diagnosis is a predictor of OS by correcting for age at diagnosis, gender, race, stage at diagnosis, international prognostic index (IPI), central nervous system involvement, histopathological diagnosis and type of chemotherapy. ALC at diagnosis after controlling all variables was not a significant predictor of OS (P: 0.7126).
Conclusion:We found that ALC at time of diagnosis did not have a statistically significant effect on OS. We believe that prospective large-scale studies are needed to determine whether ALC at time of diagnosis affects OS in NHL patients.
No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
