Biochemical Response Evaluation on Lymphomas: Proposing a Scoring System

Lymphomas encompass various lymphoid malignancies, although they are classified and evaluated in a similar manner. Prognostic stratification of lymphomas employs biochemical tests; however, these tests do not offer a viable means of assessing response. We included 108 patients with lymphoma who underwent treatment at the Department of Medical Oncology, Hacettepe University, between January 2015 and December 2017. Patients were grouped into good and poor responders, and changes in biochemical parameters were assessed for their utility in evaluating patient response. We evaluated the proposed scoring system’s effect size using Cramer’s V test. Fifty-seven patients were male, 51 patients were female, and the median age of the patients was 50 years. Twenty-seven patients had HL, 72 patients had B-cell NHL, and 9 patients had T-cell NHL. Fifty-three patients had stage IV, nine patients had stage III, 23 patients had stage II, and 22 patients had stage I disease. Levels of total protein (from 7.12 to 6.79 gr/ dL, p< 0.01), ß2-microglobulin (from 2287 to 2039 ng/mL, p= 0.07), and lactate dehydrogenase (from 297.8 to 230.1 U/L, p< 0.01) decreased in patients with good response, whereas nothing significant was found in patients with poor response. After transforming the parameters, we proposed a 4-point ordinal system comprising total protein, ß2-microglobulin, and lactate dehydrogenase values. Subsequent analysis demonstrated a nearly high effect size (Cramer’s V 0.461) and significance in logistic regression (p< 0.01). Our study presents the first scoring system for response assessment in lymphoma using biochemical tests. Further research is necessary to validate our scoring system. Keywords: Lymphomas, Response evaluation, Biochemistry, Basic scoring