ABSTRACT

To establish a dataset including demographic features, disease characteristics, and survival rate of follicular lymphoma patients in Trakya University School of Medicine and contribute to the database of follicular lymphoma in Turkey.

In this retrospective cross-sectional study, we analyzed data constituting of follicular lymphoma patients over 18 years of age followed during the years of 2015-2020 in Trakya University Division of Hematology

Out of 43 patients, 22 (51.2%) were female and 21 (48.8%) were male. The mean age was 56.56 (standard deviation 13.24) years. There were 5 (11.6%) patients with B symptoms, presence of bone marrow involvement was seen in 17 (39.5%) patients, lastly, there were 18 (41.9%) patients with splenomegaly. Twenty- one (48.8%) patients received rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin hydrochloride, vincristine sulfate, and prednisone, making it the most common treatment protocol administered in our study.

Follicular lymphoma patients usually end up getting diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease, presenting with incidentally noticed painless lymphadenopathy. Additionally, based on evidence in the literature, a clear gap in the successful diagnosis of follicular lymphoma patients can be observed between developed and developing countries. To overcome this hurdle, enhanced cooperation with hematopathology may lead to an increased awareness enabling physicians to make a more accurate diagnosis. Nonetheless, further studies are still needed to fully apprehend the epidemiology of follicular lymphoma patients in Turkey.

Keywords: Follicular lymphoma, retrospective study, non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas