Abstract: Objective To compare the clinical characteristics and prognosis of AIDS-related lymphoma (ARL) between the elderly patients and the young patients. Methods This study retrospectively enrolled 55 patients with newly diagnosed ARL from 2009 to 2023 in our hospital.According to the quantitative and qualitative data, the factors affecting the overall survival time(OS) were analyzed by Cox regression. Results All the patients were divided into elderly group(15 cases, aged ≥60 years) and young group(40 cases,aged <60 years). Compared with the elderly patients, the young patients were prone to presenting with the symptoms of group B (P=0.009). All patients were followed up until August 31, 2023, and the mortality rate and median OS of the elderly patients was 53.3%(8/15) and 14.3 months, compared with 47.5%(19/40) and 13.4 months in the young patients. There were no significant differences in mortality (P=0.700) and OS (P=0.872) between the two groups. Univariate survival analysis revealed that standardized therapy (P=0.010) affected the prognosis of elderly patients, and IPI score (P=0.015), CD4⁺ T cell count (P=0.039), group B symptoms (P=0.016), hepatitis C antibody (P=0.025), standardized treatment (P=0.011) were associated with OS in young group. Multiple survival analysis showed that IPI score (P=0.042) was the independent risk factor affecting the prognosis of young patients. Conclusions B-cell lymphoma is the main type of ARL, and most of them show high risk of death. All the patients should receive standardized treatment to improve prognosis.

Key words: AIDS-related lymphoma, clinical characteristics, prognostic factors