title: [Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the elderly].
abstract: Within a seven year period, 1597 newly diagnosed cases of non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) were included in a Danish population-based NHL-register. Of these, 602 (38%) were aged 70 or older (age range 70-94, median: 76.8) and represented the population defined as "elderly" patients in the present study. Their average annual incidence rate was 35.7/10(5), as compared to 6.6/10(5) for patients aged < 70 (overall annual incidence: 9.5/105). Localised cases (stage I and II) and extranodal manifestations were more frequent among elderly patients. The most common sites of extranodal involvement were stomach (21% of all extranodal cases) and bone marrow (16%). Histologically, follicular centroblastic/centrocytic cases were found to be less frequent (p < 0.01) in elderly patients as compared to their younger counterparts (< 70 years), who on the other hand had a lower occurrence of diffuse centroblastic cases (p < 0.01). Overall seven year survival for the elderly patient population was 35% (median: 1.7 years), and for patients aged < 70 it was 57%. This difference persisted after correction for apparently NHL-unrelated deaths (52% vs. 66% respectively, p < 0.0001). The following poor prognostic factors for elderly patients were identified by multivariate analysis: hepatic involvement, presence of B-symptoms, high-grade histology and elevated s-LDH. The corresponding relative risk values were respectively 2.4, 2.2, 1.9 and 1.6.
authors.affiliation: Odense Sygehus, haematologisk afdeling.
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: d'Amore
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brincker
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thorling
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sandberg
authors.forename: N T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sørensen
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis
vernacular_title: Non-Hodgkin's lymfom hos aeldre.