Autoimmune phenomena in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
In order to obtain valid data on the pattern, frequency and prognostic significance of autoimmune derangements in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) we studied 626 consecutive adult NHL patients participating in a population-based lymphoma registry. A total of 86 patients, corresponding to 13.7%, showed autoimmune phenomena (AP). Of these, 7.8% exhibited clinical autoimmune phenomena (CAP), and 5.9% showed immunohaematological phenomena (IHP). The distribution of histological subgroups of NHL in the AP and non-AP patients was similar. The same holds true for the CAP and IHP patients. A slight, non-significant overrepresentation of NHL, T-cell phenotype was found in patients with AP. CAP preceded the diagnosis of NHL in most patients, whereas IHP was associated with active lymphoma disease. AP as a whole did not predict for time to complete response, time to relapse or for survival. The finding that IHP patients relapsed earlier than CAP patients was not reflected in a significant difference in survival.
Department of Haematology, Odense University Hospital, Denmark.
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K
Grønbaek
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F
D'Amore
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K
Schmidt
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012042:Registries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate