Lymphoma presenting as bone marrow failure.

Abstract

In reviewing 550 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, only 3 percent were found to present with severe leukopenia or thrombocytopenia due to bone marrow infiltration. Patients with well-differentiated lymphoma had a favorable prognosis despite the presence of cytopenia. In contrast, individuals with poorly differentiated lymphoma had a median survival of only 4 months. Thus, the critical factor in survival was the degree of differentiation of the lymphoma. Conventional therapy proved of little value in the poorly differentiated group. Trials of intensive multidrug chemotherapeutic regimens seem warranted, despite the risk of exacerbating the cytopenia.