Determinants of survival in Nigeria with Burkitt's Lymphoma

Abstract

There is paucity of information on the factors influencing survival of patients with Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) in Nigeria. This work was undertaken to examine the roles of presenting clinical and laboratory features in the survival a number of Nigerian patients with BL. Confirmed cases of UL diagnosed in the hospital between January 1986 and December 1999 were studied. Diagnosis of the tumour was based on .me needle aspiration cytology of easily accessible mass in a large majority of patients. Median survival was calculated for all kaplan-meier technique. SPSS 10 statistical software and EPI6.04b were used for all statistical to calculations. a total of 213 patients were recruited over the 13-ycar period; with ages ranging from 3-45 years period; with (median = 9 ) at diagnosis. The male-female ratio was 1.8:1. At the time of analysis in December 2001. 166 (77.9%) of patients had defaulted, 44 were known to have died and 3 were still alive. only 81 (38/o) of the patients had adequate chemotherapy (4-6 cycles). Fifty one (23.9%) patients had an initial complete remission. The mean survival o f the 44 patients that died was 10.5 weeks (95% CI = 3.9-17.1). It is concluded that survival in Burkitt s lymphoma was significantly better in patients who had adequate therapy, mean 40.8 ± 12 ^ (SE) weeks compared to those who had less than adequate cycles of chemotherapy, mean 3.7 ± 1.0 (SE) weeks (p = 0.0000). Inadequate therapy and high default rate were partly responsible for the poor survival results obtained in this study.