RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF FOLLICULAR LYMPHOMA PATIENTS IN TRAKYA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: A SINGLE CENTER EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Aims: To establish a dataset including demographic features, disease characteristics, and survival rate of follicular lymphoma patients in Trakya Universi- ty School of Medicine and contribute to the database of follicular lymphoma in Turkey. Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we analyzed data constituting of follicular lymphoma patients over 18 years of age followed during the years of 2015-2020 in Trakya University Division of Hematology. Results: Out of 43 patients, 22 (51.2%) were female and 21 (48.8%) were male. The mean age was 56.56 (standard deviation 13.24) years. There were 5 (11.6%) pa- tients with B symptoms, presence of bone marrow involvement was seen in 17 (39.5%) patients, lastly, there were 18 (41.9%) patients with splenomegaly. Twen- ty-one (48.8%) patients received rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin hydrochloride, vincristine sulfate, and prednisone, making it the most common treatment protocol administered in our study. Conclusion: Follicular lymphoma patients usually end up getting diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease, presenting with incidentally noticed painless lymphadenopathy. Additionally, based on evidence in the literature, a clear gap in the successful diagnosis of follic- ular lymphoma patients can be observed between developed and developing countries. To overcome this hurdle, enhanced cooperation with hematopathology may lead to an increased awareness enabling physicians to make a more accurate diagnosis. Nonetheless, further studies are still needed to fully apprehend the epidemiology of follicular lymphoma patients in Turkey.

Keywords

• Follicular lymphoma
• retrospective study
• non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas

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