Publication Date:
2007-11-16
Description:
FL is incurable with standard therapy, with no consensus on best initial management strategy. Two critical choices - deferral of initial therapy and use or not of anthracyclines - are often “individualized” per clinical circumstances. To date, no data exist regarding whether ‘disease-specific’, ‘patient-specific’, or ‘disease/patient-independent’ characteristics influence these two critical choices for initial therapy. The NLCS is the first prospective observational study in the US designed to assess FL baseline characteristics, prognosis, treatment choices, and clinical outcomes. We utilized this database to correlate the above characteristics with initial therapeutic choices regarding deferral of therapy and use of anthracyclines in pts with FL. NLCS enrolled pts with FL diagnosed within 6 months with no prior lymphoma history. Data collected included demographics, histology, staging, prognostic evaluation, therapy, response, relapses and death. As NLCS is an observational study, no prescribed treatment regimen or intervention is required. Therapy was considered deferred if none was administered within 3 months of diagnosis. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. 2254 pts with FL grades 1–3 were enrolled from 237 sites throughout the US from March 2004–January 2007. Median age was 61, 52% were female, and 90% were Caucasian. Grade distribution was 47% 1, 31% 2, and 22% 3. Stages were: I: 18%; II: 15%; III: 30%, and IV: 36%. Initial therapy was deferred in 18%. This frequency varied widely among subgroups defined by disease-, patient-, and provider-specific factors. Among disease-specific factors, strongest association was with grade (Gr1 24%, Gr2 15%, Gr3 9% {p
Print ISSN:
0006-4971
Electronic ISSN:
1528-0020
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine
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