The efficacy of burkitt lymphoma international prognostic index (BL-IPI) in adult burkitt lymphoma patients

Burkitt lymphoma is a rare but severe subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. An ideal risk scoring system peculiar to Burkitt lymphoma is still not available, however BL-IPI has been identified recently. In this study, we aimed to examine the basic characteristics of Burkitt lymphoma patients that have been treated in our institution, to determine the prognostic factors which affect survival and to evaluate the efficacy of BL-IPI and other risk scoring systems in our patient population. In order to do this, patients who were diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma between 2000 and 2021 were included in this study and disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were determined as the primary endpoints. A total of 71 patients whose median age of diagnosis was 40 (interquartile range: 29-55) and median follow-up time was 11,4 months (minimum 0,33, maximum 243,67 months) were included. 1 year OS was estimated as 58%, 3-year OS as 53%, and 3-year DFS as 64%. Factors affecting survival were examined and in univariate analyses; ECOG performance score 2, stage 4 disease, bone marrow involvement, central nervous system (CNS) involvement, LDH higher-than upper limit of normal, hypoalbuminemia, anemia and thrombocytopenia were associated with lower 3-year OS (p<0,05); while stage 4 disease, bone marrow involvement, anemia and thrombocytopenia were associated with lower 3-year DFS (p<0,05). In multivariate analysis, only ECOG performance score 2, stage 4 disease, bone marrow involvement and thrombocytopenia were associated with a statistically significant increase in periodical death rate (p<0,05). CNS involvement caused a near significant increase (p=0,067). Our study supports the fact that BL-IPI predicts survival efficiently, however it should be noted that this risk scoring system does not include disease stage which is shown as an important risk factor in our study. A separate risk scoring system for advanced stage Burkitt lymphoma could be developed in the future.