Survival of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Germany in the early 21st century

Abstract

This study provides up-to-date and detailed cancer survival estimates of German patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL, International Statistical Classification of Diseases 10th Revision [ICD-10] codes C82–C85) based on data from 11 cancer registries. Period analysis was used to calculate 5-year relative survival in 2002–2006, overall and by gender, age and histology. Comparison was made with patients with NHL in the United States (US) Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database in the same time period. Overall 5-year relative survival for patients with NHL in Germany in 2002–2006 was 62.8% and in the US was 65.1%. Survival decreased with age from 81.7% at age 15–49 to 46.5% at age 75+. Survival in the US was 75.3% at age 15–49 and 52% at age 75+. Survival was higher for women than for men, at 65.2% for women and 60.7% for men. Survivals for diffuse B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma, the two most common subtypes of NHL, were 57.3% and 77.5%, respectively. Between 2002 and 2006, overall 5-year relative survival increased by 5.3 percentage points. We conclude that survival for NHL is increasing in Germany in recent years. Survival was higher in Germany than in the US for patients aged 15–49 but lower for older patients.

Keywords::

• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• survival
• period analysis
• follicular lymphoma
• diffuse large cell lymphoma

Acknowledgements

Members of the GEKID Cancer Survival Working Group are: Karla Geiss, Martin Meyer (Cancer Registry of Bavaria), Andrea Eberle, Sabine Luttmann (Cancer Registry of Bremen), Roland Stabenow (Cancer Registry of Berlin and the New Federal States), Stefan Hentschel, Alice Nennecke (Hamburg Cancer Registry), Joachim Kieschke, Eunice Sirri (Cancer Registry of Lower Saxony), Bernd Holleczek (Saarland Cancer Registry), Katharina Emrich (Cancer Registry of Rhineland-Palatinate), Hiltraud Kajüter, Volkmar Mattauch (Cancer Registry of North Rhine- Westphalia), Alexander Katalinic (Cancer Registry of Schleswig-Holstein), Klaus Kraywinkel (Robert Koch Institute, Berlin), Hermann Brenner, Adam Gondos, Eva Hiripi and Lina Jansen (DKFZ).

Potential conflict of interest: Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at www.informahealthcare.com/lal.

This work was supported in part by a grant from German Cancer Aid (Deutsche Krebshilfe, no. 108257) and a visiting scientist grant from the DKFZ.