Role of bone marrow examination in staging XXXX : experience in M  xico.

@entity1 @entity978
We assessed the value of bone marrow biopsy prospectively in a group of 91 individuals with @entity978 . The median age of our population was 29 years (range 4-87 years); 59 were males. Most @entity1 (45%) had nodular sclerosing disease and most @entity1 (44%) were in pathological stage II at diagnosis. The bone marrow biopsy showed infiltration by @entity978 in only three individuals (3.3%); two of these @entity1 displayed constitutional symptoms and had been assigned to stage III before the biopsy. In one case, bone marrow biopsy was the diagnostic procedure, which was performed as part of the investigation of fever of unknown origin. Follow-up periods ranged between 1 and 117 months (median 16 months). All @entity1 achieved complete remission, seven @entity1 relapsed and four were given autologous stem cell transplants. The median survival of the whole group was 117 months, while the 3500-day survival was 76%. As bone marrow biopsy was the diagnostic procedure in one case, bone marrow biopsy was a useful staging procedure in only 2.2% of @entity1 (two out of 90 @entity1 ). We suggest that bone marrow biopsy should be only be performed as a staging procedure in a selected subset of @entity1 with @entity978 (clinical stage III, B symptoms, etc.).
