PROLONGED SURVIVAL IN FOLLICULAR NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMA IS PREDICTED BY ACHIEVEMENT OF COMPLETE REMISSION WITH INITIAL TREATMENT - RESULTS OF A LONG-TERM STUDY WITH MULTIVARIATE-ANALYSIS OF PROGNOSTIC FACTORS

Prognostic factors among 200 patients with follicular non-Hodgkin's Ly mphoma (NHL) (categories B to D of the Working Formulation) requiring systemic therapy were investigated. In univariate analyses factors tha t had a favourable influence on survival included complete response to treatment, female sex and age <60 years, while the presence of B-symp toms was a weakly adverse prognostic factor. In a multivariate analysi s only the achievement of CR (chi square = 5.9, p = 0.015) and sex (x( 2) = 5.9, p = 0.015) were significant prognostic factors for survival. Not only was achievement of CR predictive of survival, CR duration gr eater than or equal to 2 years was associated with median overall surv ival in excess of 6 years. These results suggest that patients who are responsive to first line chemotherapy have a good prognosis and that experimental. treatments such as high dose chemotherapy with hemopoeti c rescue should be reserved for patients who either fail to achieve CR with initial therapy or who relapse within 2 years of initial treatme nt.