Intermediate and high grade non Hodgkin's lymphoma in the elderly

Many malignant tumors develop in the later years of life. One of malignancies that frequently occurs in older patients is non Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with a median age at diagnosis over 60 years. The overall incidence of NHL has increased over the past decade and is expected to continue to rise in developed countries. So NHL will be diagnosed more in the future. In this review we discuss epidemiology, etiology, possible differences in tumor characteristics compared with younger NHL patients, treatment and treatment results in elderly NHL patients.