Survival in patients with oral and maxillofacial diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

The purpose of this study was to determine the survival and prognostic factors of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) of the oral cavity and maxillofacial region. Retrospectively, the clinical records of patients with a primary diagnosis of DLBCL of the oral cavity and maxillofacial region treated at the A.C. Camargo Hospital for Cancer, São Paulo, Brazil, between January 1980 and December 2005 were evaluated to determine (A) overall survival (OS) at 2 and 5 years and the individual survival percentage for each possible prognostic factor by means of the actuarial technique (also known as mortality tables), and the Kaplan Meier product limit method (which provided the survival value curves for each possible prognostic factor); (B) prognostic factors subject to univariate evaluation with the log-rank test (also known as Mantel-Cox), and multivariate analysis with Cox's regression model (all the variables together). The data were considered significant at p ≤ 0.05. From 1980 to 2005, 3513 new cases of lymphomas were treated, of which 151 (4.3%) occurred in the oral cavity and maxillofacial region. Of these 151 lesions, 48 were diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, with 64% for OS at 2 years and 45% for OS at 5 years. Of the variables studied as possible prognostic factors, multivariate analysis found the following variables have statistically significant values: age (p = 0.042), clinical stage (p = 0.007) and performance status (p = 0.031). These data suggest that patients have a higher risk of mortality if they are older, at a later clinical stage, and have a higher performance status.