Long-term survival of patients diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma after a previous malignancy

Abstract

An increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) has been observed in the survivors of several malignancies. Survival for patients with primary NHL has improved in the 1990s and early 21st century, but population-based survival data for patients diagnosed with NHL after a prior malignancy are lacking. We estimated trends in age-specific 5- and 10-year relative survival of NHL patients with prior malignancy in the United States from 1990–1994 to 2000–2004 using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program database. Period analysis of survival was employed to disclose recent developments with minimum delay. Five- and 10-year relative survival has strongly improved for NHL patients with prior malignancy between 1990–1994 and 2000–2004, from 38.0 to 54.1% and 24.4 to 41.0%, respectively. Despite a strong increase in relative survival over time, patients with prior malignancies continued to have a worse prognosis compared with those with no prior malignancy.

Keywords:

• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• prior malignancy
• prognosis
• trends