Study setting and design
We conducted a 10-year retrospective cohort study from January 1, 2005 to March 31, 2015 of adult lymphoma patients seen at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) in Jos, north central Nigeria. Patients were followed up to determine their patient time contribution from the beginning of the study (time of initiation of chemotherapy for lymphoma) to occurrence of the primary outcome (death) or the end of study period. Those lost to follow-up were censored at data of their last known follow-up in clinic.
Inclusion criteria
We included all adult (18 ± years of age) patients diagnosed with lymphoma and managed at JUTH from January 1, 2005 to March 31, 2015.
Exclusion criteria
We excluded adults with treatment, follow-up, and care for lymphoma obtained outside of JUTH. We also excluded lymphoma patients who were pregnant.
Data collection
Demographic variables (age, sex), clinical variables (comorbidity, HIV sero-status, stage, subtype, chemotherapy cycles), laboratory variables (CD4+ T cell count, HIV RNA level), follow up and outcome(mortality) data for the HIV-positive lymphoma group were obtained from the electronic records of the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) center of JUTH. Data for the HIV-negative group were obtained from the case report forms from the Hematology department and electronic database of the Pathology department of JUTH. Other sources of data were the inpatient notes, hospital discharge summaries, mortuary records, and from phone calls to patients or their relatives.
Demographic variables measured
Sex was either male or female, age was analyzed as continuous variable.
Clinical variables measured
The primary outcome variable was all-cause mortality (determined as below), and the main exposure variable was HIV infection (by HIV antibody testing). Other variables measured were cumulative cycles of chemotherapy received within a year after lymphoma diagnosis, baseline CD4+ T cell count, baseline HIV RNA level, comorbidities, tumor stage, histologic tumor type and ART use. Baseline nadir CD4+ T cell count was the lowest value before or at initiation of ART and baseline HIV RNA level was the peak level before or at initiation of ART. Information on mortality was obtained from hospital records, mortuary death records and telephone interview with family of patient. Histologic tumor type was based on hematoxylin and eosin stain microscopic pathology report and divided into non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) according to the W.H.O 2008 classification of lymphoma [Appendix B]. Tumor stage at lymphoma diagnosis was according to Ann Arbor staging with stages I and II (early stage), stages III and IV (late stage) [Appendix A]. Time from lymphoma diagnosis to death was calculated in days and subsequently converted to lunar months and years. Comorbidities were other illnesses recorded for the patients other than lymphoma and HIV infection. Cumulative cycles of chemotherapy was calculated as the total cycles of chemotherapy received by each patient within the first year after lymphoma diagnosis. Patients were considered to be on ART if they had been receiving any combination ART at least 3 months before initiation of lymphoma chemotherapy. Clinically relevant cut-off levels for binary variables CD4+ T cell count and HIV RNA levels were 200 cell/μl and 400 copies/ml respectively.
Statistical analysis
The analytical focus of this study was to determine all-cause probability of death and to identify likely risk factors that contribute to death in lymphoma patients in this low resource setting. The overall mortality rate was estimated using total number of death events and the cumulative person time follow-up from initiation of chemotherapy to death. Differences in proportions and means between the HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients was assessed using Chi-square or Fisher’s exact tests for proportions and t-test for mean. Mean and standard deviations for baseline HIV RNA levels were log transformed for easy interpretation. Cox proportional hazard analysis (unadjusted) was used to examine the association between all-cause mortality in the lymphoma patients and variables age, sex, stage, histologic subtype, cumulative cycles of chemotherapy used, comorbidity and HIV infection. Adjusted analysis was then conducted. P value <0.05 was considered significant and only those having significant p values were used in the adjusted model. A further analysis was done for the HIV-associated lymphoma group using Chi-square or Fisher’s where applicable for categorical variables and student t-test for means of continuous variables. All statistical tests were 2-sided with type 1 error set at 0.05 for statistical significance. Sex, age, cumulative cycles of chemotherapy, HIV-status, comorbidities, stage, histologic tumor subtype, baseline CD4+ T cell count and baseline HIV RNA level were all treated as binary variables for determining predictors of death and for the further analysis of the HIV group respectively. To estimate the hazard of death following lymphoma diagnosis, we used time from diagnosis in years as time covariate and death as failure event. Kaplan-Meier graph estimating probability of survival following lymphoma diagnosis by HIV status was plotted. We used Log-rank test to test for difference in probability of survival between the HIV positive and HIV negative lymphoma groups with p-value 0.05 signifying significant difference in survival. Statistical analysis was performed with STATA version 11.0 college station, Texas, USA.