Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in very elderly patients over 80 years. A descriptive analysis of clinical presentation and outcome

Background: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) in patients older than 80 years is not a rare disease and treatment strategies are often difficult because of associated comorbidities. Patients and methods: We entered 205 NHL patients older than 80 years treated in a single institution in a retrospective analysis to describe clinical presentation and outcome and to identify specific prognostic factors. Results: The median age was 83 years, and 91% of the cases were B-cell lymphomas consisting mainly of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and marginal zone lymphoma. Among patients presenting comorbidities (87%), Charlson index was low in almost half of the patients (43%). Patients did not receive any treatment or received corticosteroids alone in 15%, surgery, radiotherapy, or monochemotherapy in 35%, polychemotherapy without anthracycline in 18%, and anthracycline based in 32%. Median overall survival was of 2.2 years. Main reason for death was disease progression (57%). Independent prognostic factors of survival were poor performance status (P