Abstract
The significance of clinical stage and primary site of tumor of T- and B-lymphomas for prognosis was analyzed in the 208 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who had been treated in National Cancer Center Hospital from the beginning of 1975 to the end of 1981. Patients with B-lymphoma of Waldeyer's ring or stomach in stage I had the best prognosis and about 80% or more patients could be cured by local radiation therapy (Waldeyer's B-lymphoma) or surgical resection (stomach B-lymphoma). On the contrary, those in stage II had poor prognosis, suggesting that local therapy was not satisfactory. In the case of other extranodal B-lymphoma and nodal B-lymphoma, prognosis was poor and not related to the clinical stage, although 50% survival time was much longer in the earlier stages than in the more advanced stages. In the cases of T-lymphoma, primary sites of lymphoma had also much influence to the prognosis. Some of T-lymphomas of the skin and nasal cavity had good prognosis. In nodal T-lymphoma and T-lymphoma of thymus, prognosis was poor and not related to the clinical stage.
These results suggest that T-lymphoma as well as B-lymphoma are comprised of heterogenous diseases and tumor cells of a certain type of lymphoma disseminate not only through lymph-born but also through blood-born route.
