Treatment of the elderly patient with diffuse large B cell lymphoma :  Review

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Abstract

The majority of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are over the age of 60 years and the management of these patients is often sub-optimal. Intensive therapy with curative intent should be given to all patients who can tolerate such therapy, and this requires very careful evaluation of each patient prior to treatment allocation. A detailed history and examination are required, with attention to concomitant disease and existing drug therapy. A quantitative assessment of comorbidity and a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) are valuable adjuncts to physician judgment. For most elderly patients, the R-CHOP regimen (rituximab, cyclophosphamide doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisolone) remains the standard of care. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor should be given routinely. Reassessment before each cycle of therapy is essential and interim echocardiography should be performed. In patients with cardiac insufficiency there are a number of alternative regimens but no definitive 'best regimen.' In those patients not treated with curative intent a multi-disciplinary approach is essential. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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A new method of classifying prognostic comorbidity in longitudinal studies: Development and validation

Mary Charlson, Peter Pompei, Kathy Ales … (1987)

The objective of this study was to develop a prospectively applicable method for classifying comorbid conditions which might alter the risk of mortality for use in longitudinal studies. A weighted index that takes into account the number and the seriousness of comorbid disease was developed in a cohort of 559 medical patients. The 1-yr mortality rates for the different scores were: "0", 12% (181); "1-2", 26% (225); "3-4", 52% (71); and "greater than or equal to 5", 85% (82). The index was tested for its ability to predict risk of death from comorbid disease in the second cohort of 685 patients during a 10-yr follow-up. The percent of patients who died of comorbid disease for the different scores were: "0", 8% (588); "1", 25% (54); "2", 48% (25); "greater than or equal to 3", 59% (18). With each increased level of the comorbidity index, there were stepwise increases in the cumulative mortality attributable to comorbid disease (log rank chi 2 = 165; p less than 0.0001). In this longer follow-up, age was also a predictor of mortality (p less than 0.001). The new index performed similarly to a previous system devised by Kaplan and Feinstein. The method of classifying comorbidity provides a simple, readily applicable and valid method of estimating risk of death from comorbid disease for use in longitudinal studies. Further work in larger populations is still required to refine the approach because the number of patients with any given condition in this study was relatively small.

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Assessment of Older People: Self-Maintaining and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living

M P Lawton, E M Brody (1969)

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Confirmation of the molecular classification of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma by immunohistochemistry using a tissue microarray.

Christine Hans, Dennis Weisenburger, Timothy C. Greiner … (2004)

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) can be divided into prognostically important subgroups with germinal center B-cell-like (GCB), activated B-cell-like (ABC), and type 3 gene expression profiles using a cDNA microarray. Tissue microarray (TMA) blocks were created from 152 cases of DLBCL, 142 of which had been successfully evaluated by cDNA microarray (75 GCB, 41 ABC, and 26 type 3). Sections were stained with antibodies to CD10, bcl-6, MUM1, FOXP1, cyclin D2, and bcl-2. Expression of bcl-6 (P <.001) or CD10 (P =.019) was associated with better overall survival (OS), whereas expression of MUM1 (P =.009) or cyclin D2 (P <.001) was associated with worse OS. Cases were subclassified using CD10, bcl-6, and MUM1 expression, and 64 cases (42%) were considered GCB and 88 cases (58%) non-GCB. The 5-year OS for the GCB group was 76% compared with only 34% for the non-GCB group (P <.001), which is similar to that reported using the cDNA microarray. Bcl-2 and cyclin D2 were adverse predictors in the non-GCB group. In multivariate analysis, a high International Prognostic Index score (3-5) and the non-GCB phenotype were independent adverse predictors (P <.0001). In summary, immunostains can be used to determine the GCB and non-GCB subtypes of DLBCL and predict survival similar to the cDNA microarray.