Clinical Features and Survival of Patients With Follicular Lymphoma in Korea

We performed a retrospective analysis of 343 patients diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in Korea who showed some different tendencies compared with patients in Western countries. The grade was high and the stage relatively low. Bcl-2 expression was also low; however, except for these factors, most of the characteristics were similar. Background: The incidence of follicular lymphoma (FL) varies according to geographic location. It is the second most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Western countries but has a very low incidence in Asia. Thus, no representative data are available for FL. Therefore, we gathered our own data to build a foundation for FL research. Patients and Methods: We collected a total of 343 patient records. The median age was 53 years, and the ratio of male to female patients was 1.4:1. Most patients received chemotherapy with or without rituximab. Results: The incidence of grade 1 and 2 FL was 64.9% (n = 205) and of stage III and IV was 51.2% (n = 171). The grade tended to be higher and the stage to be lower compared with Western data. In the chemotherapy group, the complete response rate was 76.0%, and the partial response rate was 17.1%. The median follow-up duration was 38.1 months. The estimated 5-and 10-year progression-free survival and overall survival rates were 68.3% and 84.9% and 63.0% and 71.3%, respectively. Conclusion: We could not find definitive differences between our Korean data and the Western data, although we found some trends in the baseline characteristics. Therefore, we hope to develop an understanding of FL and perform more qualitative studies in the future. (c) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.