Aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: T-cell versus B-cell.

This study is aimed to define the clinical characteristics, treatment of outcome and independent prognostic factors of 144 patients with T- and 357 B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Entities with well-defined immunophenotype and clinical characteristics were excluded. Patients with T-cell tumours were younger. T-immunophenotype was associated with more advanced disease and presence of B symptoms. They were also less likely to have bulky disease. Primary nasal lymphomas were usually T-cell while lymphomas arising from the gastrointestinal tract and Waldeyer's ring were mostly B-cell. On univariate analysis, T-immunophenotype was associated with lower CR rate, higher relapse rate and inferior overall survival. On the other hand, multivariate analysis revealed that advanced stage, presence of B symptoms, advanced age, high serum lactate dehydrogenase level and use of non-doxorubicin-containing regimens for induction were associated with poor prognosis. Immunophenotype was not a significant independent prognostic factor.