Hematology

Biography

Biography: Areeg bala elbashir Mohamed ahmed

Abstract

Lymphoma is a blood cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, grows in out of control and develops malignant cells. These abnormal cancer cells grow and make more abnormal cells which then accumulate forming masses. The two main types are Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). NHL is a group of blood cancers that have similar characteristics in how they develop, and its causes are still not clear. Lymphoma presents with a wide range of symptoms including cough, sweating, fatigue, fever, night sweat, chest pain, SOB, lymph node enlargement and weight loss. Diagnosis is made by laboratory studies, images, biopsy, and cytogenetic methods. Staging is based on the size and locations and whether the tumor spread to other side of the body, from stage 1 to stage 4. Lymphoma is a curable disease and people can live long life after being diagnosed. Chemotherapy has generally been presented as a rational and promising way to cancer treatment throughout the years. It is generally given in cycles: A treatment period is followed by a recovery period, then another treatment period, and so on. Many different chemotherapy drugs are available, and can be used alone or in combination to treat a wide variety of cancers. The regimen presently used in Saudi Arabia is combinations of Cyclophosphamide, Hydroxydaunorubicin, Oncovin (vincristine), Prednisolone, and Rituximab (CHOP, R-CHOP). The current literature lacks data on the subject to estimate the responsiveness in NHL patients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Through this study, I aim to determine the age distribution, gender, tumor type and stage, and type of chemotherapy used for patients with NHL, to evaluate the survival of chemotherapeutically treated NHL patients and to determine the incidence of common side effects encountered following starting chemotherapy. This retrospective study took place in King Abdul Al Aziz Hospital (KAH) in Al Ahsa, which is one of the five hospitals of MNGHA (Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs in Saudi Arabia). The study period was from October 2015 to January 2016; data of the targeted patients was collected from the medical records of the list of the patients who have visited the hospital for cancer treatment. A total of 35 eligible participants have been included. I found that 71.4% patients survived and 28.6% died within the first year of chemotherapy. The mean age of patients was 61 years. 45.7% were male and 54.2% were female. 85.7% had B-cell NHL and 14.3% had follicular lymphoma. 88.6% received R-CHOP and 11.4% did receive R-CVP. 45.7% were stage 1 and 22.9% were stage 4. 57.1% didn’t show any systemic side effects and 40% developed leucopenia. No significant different between gender for survival time in NHL patients (p=.448) was observed. Same goes for survival distribution for different kinds of chemotherapy (p=.240). for survival time and stages of NHL (p=.838).