Primary Pancreatic Lymphoma: An Analysis of the National Cancer Database

Background: Primary pancreatic lymphoma (PPL) is a rare entity, accounting for fewer than 2% of extranodal malignant lymphomas and 0.5% of all pancreatic masses. Fewer than 150 cases of PPL have been reported in the English language medical literature. We aimed to utilize the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to investigate the clinicopathological features and prognostic factors in PPL.

Methods: The NCDB for Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was used to identify 2130 patients diagnosed with PPL (2004 and 2020). The database was used to examine clinicopathological features. Survival analysis was done by Kaplan-Meier. Cox proportional hazards was adopted for prognostic variable evaluation.

Results: Most PPL patients were males (58.5%) and white (87.7%), mean age at diagnosis was 67.38 years. Histologically 59.6% were diffuse large B-cell. 14.9% Follicular, 2.6 % Burkitt, & 15.8% Lymphoma NOS. Regarding treatment 71.5% of patients received chemotherapy. Immunotherapy given in 21.9%. Radiation in 12.1%, and 7.3% received some form of surgical treatment. Median survival was 85.32 months (CI 79.79-90.84). Using Cox hazard regression, the following factors were statistically significant (p<0.001): Age >60 (HR: 2.36,CI 1.9-2.8), increasing Charlson-Deyo Score, DLBL histology (HR:0.57,CI 0.45-0.72), stage 3 (HR:1.9,CI 1.6-2.2), Chemotherapy (HR 0.4,CI 0.34-0.46),and immunotherapy (HR 0.61,CI0.62-0.89)

Conclusion: This is the most comprehensive study to date to utilize the NCDB to study the characteristics and prognostic factors of patients with PPL. DLBL histology, chemotherapy and immunotherapy are associated with reduced risk of death.