Assessment of the prognostic indices IPI and FLIPI in patients with mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma.

BACKGROUND The prognostic values of the International Prognostic Index (IPI) and the Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Index (FLIPI) have widely been demonstrated in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma. No attempts to assess their applicability in MALT lymphoma have been made so far. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 143 patients with MALT-lymphoma were analysed. Parameters of both IPI and FLIPI were retrospectively assessed and correlated with relapse and time to relapse as markers of clinical course. RESULTS According to IPI, 96 patients (67%) were classified as low, 22 (15%) low-intermediate, 17 (12%) high-intermediate and 8 (6%) as high risk. FLIPI identified 99 patients (70%) at low risk, 35 (24%) at intermediate and 9 (6%) at high risk. After a median follow-up time of 39.5 months, 123 patients were alive and 46 patients had relapsed (median time to relapse 27 months). IPI significantly correlated with time to relapse, with the typical differentiation into low, low-intermediate and high risk groups. FLIPI divided patients into three groups, but the low and intermediate risk groups showed a similar clinical course. In terms of additional progonostic factors, univariate analysis suggested autoimmune disease and multifocal disease as correlated with relapse. Multiple regression analysis, however, identified only extragastric disease as predictive of relapse (p=0.001). CONCLUSION Our data demonstrate that both IPI and FLIPI are able to discriminate prognostic subgroups in patients with MALT-lymphoma. However, the low and intermediate group of the FLIPI did not appear to prognostically differ.