Background: Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) is an uncommon lymphoid malignancy. The characteristics and prognosis of WM have never been systematically studied in the East.
Methods: We analyzed the clinical characteristics and the prognostic factors of 90 Chinese WM patients, and compared them with the Western reports.
Results: The median age was 62 years old with a male-to-female ratio of 3.74. The most common symptoms at diagnosis were fatigue (77.8%) and bleeding (20%), while only 6 patients (6.7%) were asymptomatic. In the univariate analysis, age >62 years, thrombocytopenia, leucopenia, cytopenias ≥ 2, and high risk on the international prognostic scoring system for WM were the adverse risk factors, but only age >62 years and ≥ 2 cytopenias were the independent prognostic factors in the multivariate analysis. Using age <62 years and ≥ 2 cytopenias, three significantly different prognostic groups could been distinguished, with 5-year overall survival of 71.6%, 48.6%, and 17.0% (P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Distinct characteristics exist in WM in China compared to the West and we describe a new simple prognostic model for newly diagnosed WM patients.