Rai and Binet Clinical Staging in CLL Evaluated - About Equal

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Leuk Lymphoma. 2006 Dec;47(12):2505-16.

Evaluation of clinical staging in chronic lymphocytic leukemia-

population-based study.

Apelgren P, Hasselblom S, Werlenius O, Nilsson-Ehle H, Andersson PO,

On Behalf Of The Western Sweden Lymphoma Group.

Section of Haematology and Coagulation, Department of Internal

Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Goteborg, Sweden.

The Rai and Binet staging systems are currently being challenged by

the development of new biological methods to characterize the

prognosis and management of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

To evaluate these two systems in recently diagnosed CLL patients, we

performed a retrospective population-based study including 344

patients in western Sweden diagnosed between 1995 and 2000. Binet

stage A patients had longer median overall survival (OS) (100

months) than stage B (55 months; P < 0.001) and C patients (45

months; P < 0.0005). Median OS for stage B and C could not be

separated (P = 0.94).

When transferring Rai stages into three groups, a similar pattern

was found. Overall response differed only between Binet A and C

patients and there was no difference regarding time to next

treatment between any of the Binet stages.

Finally, in both systems, low stage patients had inferior survival

compared to age- and sex-matched controls. Our data emphasize the

need for a new risk stratification system for CLL patients.

PMID: 17169795 [PubMed - in process]