Incidence, clinical characteristics and survival of malignant lymphomas: a population-based study from a cancer registry in northern Italy.

We conducted a population-based study of peripheral lymphomas (PL) that had beendiagnosed between 1997 and 2003 in the province of Modena, Italy, with the aim ofproviding updated incidence, clinical and survival data for these cancers.We evaluated theincidence patterns and time trends of 1582 cases of PL that had been reclassified accordingto the WHO classification of hematological malignancies. Data regarding clinical characteristics,treatment and outcome were also collected for each case. The WorldAge-Standardized Rate (ASR) was calculated as 13.4, 2.2 and 3.4 per 100,000 peoplefor B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), T-cell NHL and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (HL),respectively, with an increase of 1.62% per year during the study period. The lymphomasubtype showing the highest incidence was found to be diffuse large B-cell lymphoma(DLBCL) with an ASR of 4.8. Compared with reports from other western countries, ourseries is characterized by a higher incidence of HL and indolent B-NHL in general, and ofCLL/SLL (ASR¼3.3) and marginal zone NHL (ASR¼1.5), in particular, and also by alower incidence of FL (ASR¼2). After a median follow-up of 54 months, the 5-year relativesurvival for the whole series was found to be 70% with a statistically significant improvementfor cases diagnosed during 2002–2003 (from 66 to 74%; p¼0.03). Survival improvementwithin the study period was also evident for patients with DLBCL, HL and T-NHL.Our study provides a comprehensive description of both the epidemiological and clinicalfeatures of PL cases in Modena and our data also reflect the major advances in thecurability of some histological subtypes of this disease. The usefulness of a populationbasedapproach to better characterizing different lymphoma subtypes is also demonstrated.