ABSTRACT

Primary central nervous system lymphoma is a rare, highly malignant disease with poor prognosis. The current knowledge about the disease is mostly gathered from prospective clinical trials and the optimal treatment modality is still a matter of debate. In this study it is aimed to acquire more information about the clinical features of the disease and the responses to different treatment modalities.

The archives in Trakya University Hospital, İnönü University Turgut Özal Medical Center, Pamukkale University Hospital and Erciyes University Hospital researched retrospectively. Demographic, treatment and survival data were retrieved and their statistical analysis was performed. As descriptive statistics number and percentages, arithmetic mean ± standard deviation, median (maximum-minimum) were used. Survival analysis was performed using Kaplan- Meier method.

Median age of patients at diagnosis was 53 (25-76) and out of 28 patients 15 (53.6 %) of them were male. As the symptoms of the disease 18 (66.7%) patients presented headache, 15 (53.8%) presented focal deficit. As initial treatment 26 (92.9%) patients received chemotherapy, while 19 (67.9%) patients were treated with surgical resection and the median overall survival time was 7 months.

Achieving complete remission as response to the initial treatment is associated with an improved overall survival. Other survival analysis to compare the impact of all initial treatment methods on overall survival resulted statistically insignificant.

Keywords: Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, remission, chemotherapy, radiotherapy