Background: Nodal mantle cell lymphoma (NMCL) has a worse survival than extra-nodal mantle cell lymphoma. Materials & methods: A cohort study was conducted to evaluate the primary site role as a mortality predictor using data from 1983 to 2011 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Results: Most patients had NMCL in multiple regions (71.9%). There was a significantly increased incidence of NMCL cases over years with 83.2% of them occurred between 1998 and 2011. The mean survival was 52.9 months with overall survival/cancer-specific survival rate of 29.2/42.9%, respectively. Lymph nodes of intrathoracic and multiple regions had a worse overall survival while the head, face and neck, intra-abdominal, pelvic, inguinal region and leg as well as multiple regions had worse cancer-specific survival. Conclusion: NMCL primary site can serve as a prognostic factor. We encourage adding it to MCL International Prognostic Index.
Keywords: SEER; mantle cell lymphoma; primary site; prognosis; survival.