Clinical Significance Of Absolute Lymphocyte Count In Newly Diagnosed Patients With Multiple Myeloma

Objective: To investigate the clinical significance and prognostic value of peripheral blood absolute lymphocyte count(ALC) at diagnosis in patients with multiple myeloma.Methods: We collected the information about clinical features and laboratory parameters of patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma from May 2008 to April 2014 at the Gansu Provincial Hospital, analyzed the relationships between different ALC levels and the clinical features and effects of multiple myeloma. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS17.0 software. T test, chi-square test, product-limited method(Kaplan-Meier) were used to analyze data and observe the prognosis. P-value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.Results: In our study, 66 patients were evaluable. There are 36(54.5%) males and 30 females. The median age of these patients was 60.5 years(range 34- 84) and the median survival time was 18.95 months. Taking the median ALC 1.35×109/L as the cut-off point, patients were divided into group 1(ALC<1.35×109/L)and group 2(ALC≥1.35×109/L). We found group1 had significantly higher age, LDH and β2-MG levels than group 2(P<0.05), while peripheral blood white blood cell count, hemoglobin concentration and platelet count were decreased in group1(P<0.05).The overall survival(OS) of group 1 was significantly lower than that of group 2(P<0.05). Compared with group 2, Sex, paraprotein type, albumin, creatinine, bone marrow plasma cells, D-S stage, subgroup, ISS and curative effects in group 1 were not significantly different(P>0.05).Conclusions: 1.Lower ALC at diagnosis may indicate a poor survival rate and survival time in patients with multiple myeloma; 2. ALC has closely relationship with several independent prognostic factors of multiple myeloma, so ALC may act as a prognostic indicator in patients with multiple myeloma.