Clinicohematological characteristics and treatment outcome of diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma -single center experience from Pakistan.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the clinicohematological characteristics and treatment outcome in Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. Study Design: Cross Sectional study. Setting: National Institute of Blood Diseases and Bone Marrow Transplantation (NIBD-BMT). Period: January 2024 to March 2025. Methods: This study included DLBCL patients who were treated at NIBD-BMT. The disease staging was done according to Ann Arbor staging. The IPI and Revised IPI (R-IPI) were employed for prognostic evaluation. All treatment naïve patients received 6 cycles of R-CHOP. Relapse/refractory patients were offered salvage regimen (R-ICE/R-DHAP/R-Lenalidomide/DHAP). The clinical and laboratory findings were evaluated on follow-up visits every 3 months. The statistical analysis was done by using SPSS version 25. Results: A total of 21 DLBCL patients were included and 57.1% were males. The median age of participants was 52 years; ranging from 32 to 58 years. Among the total, 52.4% of patients had hemoglobin levels <10.5 g/dl,81% had low TLC of <11 × 10⁹/L and platelet counts >100 × 10⁹/L in 71.4%.The R-IPI indicated that 82.4% of patients had a poor prognosis. The Ann Arbor staging system revealed that 52.9% had stage 4B.The 57 months overall survival (OS) was 62.5% for the entire cohort. In primary patients, the OS was 69% and in patients with relapsed lymphoma at the initial presentation OS was 50% with log rank test p-value 0.89. Conclusion: The study revealed the clinical characteristics, risk stratification and treatment outcomes in DLBCL in resource limited country. Furthermore, multicenter studies with large sample size are needed to validate the outcome of treatment in DLBCL patients.