[Clinical characteristics of patients with non-hodgkin lymphoma in Arnau de Vilanova Hospital, Valencia, Spain].
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.
Monzó Castellano
E
E
Servicio de Hematología  Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Valencia.
Morales Suárez-Varela
M
M
Mayans Ferrer
J
J
Vila López
V
V
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