title: [Clinical characteristics of patients with non-hodgkin lymphoma in Arnau de Vilanova Hospital, Valencia, Spain].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To define the clinical characteristics of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in general and by histological subtypes based on the REAL classification.
  
  
  METHODS
  From a total of 210 case histories of patients with NHL, 188 presenting a complete pathology report were selected. The latter was either based on the REAL classification or was converted to it by an expert. The clinical features of the patients at the time of diagnosis were also recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant differences were observed in the distribution by sex among mantle cell lymphomas, with a predominance among males (p = 0.005). The youngest patients were diagnosed of Burkitt lymphoma and B lymphoblastic lymphoma. Patient status improved significantly (p = 0.0001), with a predominance of ECOG 0, and the stage of the patients studied was 74.1% (stage III/IV) versus 25.9% (stage I/II).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The different characteristics of patients with NHL suggest the need for a single classification with diagnosis by histological subtype.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Hematología  Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Valencia.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Monzó Castellano
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morales Suárez-Varela
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mayans Ferrer
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vila López
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013030:Spain