IBCL-151: Epidemiological Data on Marginal Zone B-Cell Lymphoma in the Republic of Kosovo During the Period of 2016-2020

Abstract

Context Marginal zone B-cell lymphomas (MZLs) are a group of clinically indolent B-cell lymphomas postulated to derive from memory B lymphocytes in the 'marginal zone’ of secondary lymphoid tissue. It has several distinct entities including extra nodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (EMZL) or mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma, splenic MZL, and nodal MZL. This type of lymphoma is one of the most common lymphoma types in Kosovo. This epidemiological study will reveal new data on the success of treatment of this disease in Kosovo and how we can improve our treatment in the future. Design Retrospective descriptive epidemiological study. The data was collected during the 5 year period of 2016-2020 from patient files. Setting The data was collected from the patient files in the hematology clinic of the university clinical center of Kosovo. Patients Adults, age 18 and older, both genders diagnosed with marginal zone B-cell lymphoma in the hematology clinic of the university clinical center of Kosovo. Interventions None. Main Outcomes Measures No main outcome because it is an epidemiological study. Results During the period of January 2016 to December 2020, 31 patients were diagnosed and treated with marginal zone B-cell lymphoma. The median age of the patients was 59.2 years old. 14 (45.2%) were male and 17 (54.8%) were female. MALT marginal zone B-cell lymphoma was the most common entity with 10 patients, 10 were splenic marginal zone lymphoma, 6 were nodal and 4 were EMZL. Conclusions The majority of patients (30) were treated with R-CHOP chemotherapy protocol. Only one was not treated at all after a PET scan showed no metabolically active lesions and the watch and wait method was applied. 24 patients went into remission and received rituximab maintenance therapy every 3 months, 3 patients had progressive disease after 6 cycles of R-CHOP, and there is no data on the outcome of 2 patients.