ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate treatment effects and to determine the prognostic factors of primary orbital lymphoma. Methods From March 1984 to October 2000, 44 primary orbital lymphoma patients were admitted into our hospital, with 27 males and 17 females. Twenty-seven patients had eyelid or conjunctiva primary, and 17 patients orbit primary. Patient's age ranged from 14 to 86 years (median, 50.5years). According to the Ann Arbor Staging System, there were 40 ⅠEA, 4 ⅡEA lesions. Cobolt-60 ?ray was given first to the whole orbit to 30-35?Gy followed by 180 kv X-rays or 9 Mev ?-beam to the focus to a total dose of 41.0-51.5?Gy (median, 46.5?Gy). Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the survival. Log-rank test was used to detect the difference between groups.Results Only 1 patient failed from primary site and 5 patients from distant metastasis after radiotherapy. The 5-year and 10-year cause-specific survival rate were 90.9% and 84.5%, respectively. On univariate and multivariate analyses, eyelid or conjunctiva localization and Ann Arbor stage ⅠEA were independent favorable prognostic factors for survival. The 5-year survival was much higher in eyelid or conjunctiva patients than in orbital ones (96.3% vs 70.6%, P=0.013). The survival time was longer in stage Ⅰ than in stage Ⅱ (P=0.000). Neither the RT dose nor the age or sex influenced the outcome.Conclusions Localized orbital lymphoma can be well controlled with low-dose RT alone. Patients with eyelid or conjunctival localization and stage Ⅰ have better cause-specific survival.