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Review
. 2024 Aug;54(8):1384-1395.
doi: 10.1111/imj.16454. Epub 2024 Aug 4.

Diagnosis, management and follow-up of follicular lymphoma: a consensus practice statement from the Australasian Lymphoma Alliance

Joshua W D Tobin  1   2 , Greg Hapgood  1   2 , Anna Johnston  3 , Chan Y Cheah  4   5 , Sze T Lee  6   7 , Judith Trotman  8   9 , Shafqat Inam  10 , Belinda A Campbell  7   11 , Debbie Norris  12 , Michael MacManus  7   11 , Mark Hertzberg  9   13 , Eliza Hawkes  6   7
Affiliations
Review

Diagnosis, management and follow-up of follicular lymphoma: a consensus practice statement from the Australasian Lymphoma Alliance

Joshua W D Tobin et al. Intern Med J. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is the most common indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtype, accounting for 15-20% of all lymphoma diagnoses. Although typically slow-growing and responsive to frontline therapies, advanced-stage FL remains incurable with current treatments and typically follows a chronic relapsing/remitting course with increasingly shorter responses to subsequent lines of therapy. Outcomes are highly variable; some patients experience prolonged first remissions that may approximate a 'functional cure'. By contrast, a significant minority of patients experience disease progression shortly after frontline treatment resulting in high rates of lymphoma-related mortality. Reflecting on the heterogeneous natural history of FL, clinical practice varies widely, particularly in controversial areas, including appropriate disease staging, selection of management strategies and duration of clinical follow-up. This position statement presents an evidence-based synthesis of the literature for application in Australasian practice.

Keywords: chemotherapy; diagnosis; follicular lymphoma; maintenance; radiotherapy; staging.

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