Description

This is an observational cohort registry study of at least 800 patients with suspected lymphoma in Malawi. The primary purpose of this study is to develop a large prospective longitudinal lymphoma cohort at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH). Subjects with confirmed hematologic malignancies treated according to local standards of care will be actively followed for 2 years after diagnosis to assess clinical outcomes. After 2 years, if subjects are well, they will be discharged from clinic if they desire and contacted via telephone every 6 months for 5 years after lymphoma diagnosis simply to assess vital status. Subjects who wish to continue clinic follow-up after 2 years will be seen every 6 months until 5 years after lymphoma diagnosis. Those who are unwell after 2 years and continuing to receive active treatment will continue follow-up in clinic with all treatment details recorded.

All study laboratories and procedures which are being performed are consistent with international standards of care. Even without study implementation, all procedures may be undergone by patients at KCH, and there is no 'new' intervention being provided by the study which is currently absent in Malawi. However, current clinical and laboratory assessments of lymphoma patients at KCH over time are typically highly inconsistent and incomplete by international standards, as a result of extreme scarcity of resources and personnel. It is therefore hoped that the study will provide greater standardization and uniformity in the longitudinal characterization of patients with lymphoma at KCH, and allow data collected to be used for clinical as well as research purposes, as such data from sub-Saharan Africa are lacking and can be tremendously informative.