The prognostic value of IPI in patients with primary breast lymphoma, a multicenter retrospective study

Background: The prognostic value of International Prognostic Index (IPI) of primary breast lymphoma (PBL) remain controversial. The present study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of IPI in patients with PBL in a Chinese population. Methods: We searched the published cohort studies regarding PBL and summarized 25 studies on the prognostic value of IPI in PBL. Then a multicenter retrospective study of 71 patients with PBL was performed. The Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank tests were used for the survival analysis. Cox regression analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic factors. Subgroup analysis was performed to assess the prognostic significance of IPI scores. Results: The median follow-up was 4.7 years (range, 0.7–21.8 years). The 5-year progression-free-survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 90.2% and 96.3%. In the multivariate analysis, only IPI scores and radiotherapy were significantly associated with OS and PFS (P 0.05). Conclusions: Our study confirms the prognostic value of IPI in patients with PBL, but the prognostic value of IPI proved to be relatively low with the addition of the rituximab.