Onkológia 1/2007

Blastic transformation of indolent lymphomas

The blastic transformation of indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the precondition of which is the existence of clonal divergencies in the tumor, appears in 20 − 40 % of patients. The risk of transformation is directly related to the duration of illness and the survival of patients after transformation generally does not exceed one year. The risk of blastic transformation is high in case of voluminous tumors at the moment of their diagnosis and in case of incomplete remission in first-line treatment. The therapy of aggressive secondary large-cell lymphoma is problematic due to their higher resistance to standard chemotherapy and restricted blood production if the patients.

Keywords: indolent lymphoma, blastic transformation