IS THERE ANY PLACE FOR A WAIT-AND-SEE POLICY IN STAGE I-0 FOLLICULAR LYMPHOMA - A STUDY OF 43 CONSECUTIVE PATIENTS IN A SINGLE-CENTER

Background: A wait-and-see policy (WS) does not appear to modify the l ong-term prognosis of advanced-stage follicular lymphomas (FL), while irradiation of limited stages sometimes causes complications and does not avert distant relapses. Consequently, we decided to test WS in a s elected subset of the localized FL, i.e., patients in complete remissi on (CR) after the initial lymph node biopsy (stage I-0). Patients and methods: Forty-three previously untreated patients were diagnosed with stage I-0 FL and 26 of them were included in the WS. Their median age was 60.3 years; 19 were male and 24 female. All histological slides w ere reviewed and confirmed the diagnosis of FL. Median followup was 6. 3 years (y). Results: Thirteen of the 26 untreated patients are still relapse-free, while six relapsed locally only (median: 3.2 years after diagnosis), and reattained CR with radiotherapy. Seven patients relap sed at distant sites (median: 1 year after diagnosis). No localized re lapses were observed in the treated group, but there were 7 distant re lapses. Conclusions: The use of WS in stage I-0 FL did not appear to m odify the prognosis of these patients. Furthermore, we observed two di stinct patterns of relapse (local and distant) that are difficult to d ifferentiate at onset.