Asymptomatic Patients with Acute Leukemias and Malignant Lymphomas Found in Ningen Dock

Abstract

such as acute leukemias and malignant lymphomas, is still poor despite recent advances in therapeutic modalities 1−4. Patients with such hematological tumors are usually at an advanced stage and have tumor-related complicationsat the initial presentation. While population-based screening for gastric cancer using X-ray examinations has been proven to reduce its mortality in Japan 5,6, opportunistic ningen dock is also considered to be an efficient means of detecting early gastric cancers 7,8. However, the effect of early detection of hematological malignancies on the prognosis has not been evaluated due to their low frequency in the general population. We analyzed the clinical courses of asymptomatic patients with acute leukemias and malignant lymphomas discovered in ningen dock and compared them with those of symptomatically diagnosed patients in order to estimate the significance of early detection of hematological malignancies. Statistical Analyses Statistical analyses were carried out with SPSS version 12.0 (SPSS Inc., IL, USA). Survival was measured from the completion of therapy to events which included relapse, progression, and death from any cause, or the last contact. The survival rate was calculated according to the Kaplan-Meier method. To compare survival in the 2 groups studied, the log-rank test was used.