Prognostic importance of serum uric acid level before treatment in patients with NON-hodgkin lymphoma

INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE: Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is the most common type of cancer among hematologic malignancies with increasing incidence in all age groups. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of uric acid level on overall survival in NHL cases and its relationship with other prognostic factors and to find out whether uric acid itself can be a prognostic factor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 120 NHL patients admitted to the Hematology Clinic of Sakarya University Medical Faculty Hospital between January 2014-2019 were included in the study. Uric acid levels of the patients at the time of diagnosis; stage, risk groups, B symptoms, laboratory values, treatment responses were evaluated retrospectively and its effect on overall survival and progression-free survival were investigated. RESULTS: 120 NHL patients were included in the study. 52 patients (43.3%) were female. The mean age was 59.13 ± 14.24 years. The mean uric acid level was 6.51 ± 2.053 mg / dl. Uric acid levels of patients were compared with survival and treatment response status. The uric acid levels of ex patients were significantly higher than those of the survivors (p <0.05). The cut-off value for uric acid which may pose a risk of death was found to be 6.45 mg/dl. Uric acid levels were compared with international prognostic index (IPI), stage of the disease and treatment response. There was no statistically significant difference (p> 0.05).There was no significant difference between patients with uric acid values less than 6 mg / dl, between 6-8 mg/dl and patients with values above 8 mg / dl in terms of overall survival and progression-free survival (p> 0.05). When the effects of symptom B, uric acid, LDH, ferritin and IPI score on death risk were examined, the risk of death was found to be 8,092 times higher (95% CI: 1.69-38.54) than those with low risk scores. Uric acid values did not have a significant effect on the risk of death (p> 0.05). CONCLUSION: As a result of our study, it was shown that uric acid had no significant relationship with other prognostic factors and had no effect on survival. In order for uric acid to be included in the guidelines as a prognostic marker for NHL, studies with longer duration and more patient groups are needed.