Note: Separate PDQ summaries on Adult Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment and Adult Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment are also available.

Note: Some citations in the text of this section are followed by a level of evidence. The PDQ editorial boards use a formal ranking system to help the reader judge the strength of evidence linked to the reported results of a therapeutic strategy. (Refer to the PDQ summary on Levels of Evidence for more information.)

Primary central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma is defined as lymphoma limited to the cranial-spinal axis without systemic disease. An increasing incidence of this disease has been seen among patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and among other immunocompromised persons. The natural history of this disorder differs between patients with AIDS and those without AIDS. Computed tomographic (CT) scans may show ring enhancement in 50% of AIDS patients while patients without AIDS almost always show only homogeneous enhancement.[1] Both groups do equally poorly without therapy (1–3 month mean survival), but the overall survival for treated patients is much better for patients without AIDS (18.9 months) than for those with AIDS (2.6 months).[1,2]

Poor prognostic factors include the following:[3,4,5]

• Age older than 50 years.[5]
• Performance status greater than 1 or Karnofsky performance status less than 70.[5]
• Elevated serum level of lactate dehydrogenase.
• Elevated cerebrospinal fluid protein concentration.
• Involvement of nonhemispheric areas of the brain (periventricular, basal ganglia, brainstem, and cerebellum).

When tumor progression occurs, it is usually confined to the CNS and/or the eye. Occult systemic disease can be excluded by staging with bone marrow biopsy and CT scans of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis.[6,7] Although more than 95% of patients with primary CNS lymphoma have lymphoma of B-cell origin, 45 patients with CNS lymphoma of T-cell origin showed no difference in presentation or outcome in a retrospective series with data collected from 12 cancer centers.[8] Almost all primary CNS lymphomas are aggressive neoplasms of the diffuse large B-cell type. In a retrospective case series derived from 18 cancer centers in five countries of 40 patients with low-grade primary CNS lymphoma, a better long-term outcome was shown (7-year median survival) than is associated with the usual aggressive CNS lymphoma.[9][Level of evidence: 3iiiDiv]

References:

1. Fine HA, Mayer RJ: Primary central nervous system lymphoma. Ann Intern Med 119 (11): 1093-104, 1993.
2. Nasir S, DeAngelis LM: Update on the management of primary CNS lymphoma. Oncology (Huntingt) 14 (2): 228-34; discussion 237-42, 244, 2000.
3. Ferreri AJ, Blay JY, Reni M, et al.: Prognostic scoring system for primary CNS lymphomas: the International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group experience. J Clin Oncol 21 (2): 266-72, 2003.
4. Pollack IF, Lunsford LD, Flickinger JC, et al.: Prognostic factors in the diagnosis and treatment of primary central nervous system lymphoma. Cancer 63 (5): 939-47, 1989.
5. Abrey LE, Ben-Porat L, Panageas KS, et al.: Primary central nervous system lymphoma: the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center prognostic model. J Clin Oncol 24 (36): 5711-5, 2006.
6. O'Neill BP, Dinapoli RP, Kurtin PJ, et al.: Occult systemic non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in patients initially diagnosed as primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL): how much staging is enough? J Neurooncol 25 (1): 67-71, 1995.
7. Abrey LE, Batchelor TT, Ferreri AJ, et al.: Report of an international workshop to standardize baseline evaluation and response criteria for primary CNS lymphoma. J Clin Oncol 23 (22): 5034-43, 2005.
8. Shenkier TN, Blay JY, O'Neill BP, et al.: Primary CNS lymphoma of T-cell origin: a descriptive analysis from the international primary CNS lymphoma collaborative group. J Clin Oncol 23 (10): 2233-9, 2005.
9. Jahnke K, Korfel A, O'Neill BP, et al.: International study on low-grade primary central nervous system lymphoma. Ann Neurol 59 (5): 755-62, 2006.