Andrew M. Evens, DO, Director of the Lymphoma Program at Rutgers Cancer Institute and Medical Director of the Oncology Service Line at RWJBarnabas Health, talks about New Prognostic Indicator for Burkitt Lymphoma.
Burkitt lymphoma is a rare, and very aggressive, blood cancer that is in need of a standardized prognostic model to help guide how the condition is managed.
Until now, there has not been uniform agreement on how best to classify patients with this condition but a group of clinical researchers from cancer centers around the world has now developed a new prognostic index that was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
According to Dr. Evens, the index includes four key components that will likely determine if the person with Burkitt lymphoma outcome. The four factors are:
- Age ≥ 40 years
- ECOG performance status ≥ 2
- serum lactate dehydrogenase levels > 3x upper limit
- CNS involvement
Persons with two or more above the above factors can be considered high-risk, according to Dr. Evens.
To learn more about this and other rare cancers, go to checkrare.com/diseases/lysosomal-storage-disorders/