England: a population-based study

Summarv Classification of lImphoid malignancy has changed markedly in recent-ears and advances have been made in therapy. This study investigated the x-anrations in treatment and surviv-al of 1622 patients in a population-based registrv. A total of 1009 cases of malignant lymphoma (ML) were classified according to the Kiel classification. Pathology review resulted in major diagnostic changes for 240o of cases. Of the ML cases. 3900 had not had full staging procedures. Younger patients were more likely to have been treated With multiagent chemotherapy regimens. as were patients with B symptoms. Median survival for ML patients was 12 months for high-grade patients and more than 60 months for low-grade patients. Significant factors affecting the surVival of ML patients were performance status. whether treatment had followed a recognised protocol. whether treatment had been carred out at a specialist oncology centre (SOC). grade of disease. stage. gender and age. The same factors had a significant effect on survial of the leukaemia patients. except for treatment at an SOC. which had a significant favourable effect on survxival of acute lImphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) patients only. Median surVival for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia was 43 months and 7 months for ALL patients