Clinical pathologic study of 195 cases of childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Objective To evaluate the clinical and pathological features of childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphoma(NHL).Methods A total of 195 NHL cases,with age younger than twelve years old,diagnosed from January 1982 to January 2010 in Xinhua Hospital were reviewed.Results The peak onset age is 6-8 years old.The male to female ratio is 2.3 ∶ 1 and male patients predominate in each subtype.The cases in stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ account for 49.2%.The most common subtypes were lymphoblastic lymphoma(LBL),Burkitt lymphoma(BL)and anaplastic large cell lymphoma(ALCL).About 88.8% cases of LBL is T-cell lymphoma while all the BL is B-cell lymphoma and all the ALCL is T-cell lymphoma.More than 1/3(37.9%)of all the cases have primary extranodal lymphoma.More than one organ involvement was found in 56.1% of LBL cases when they were diagnosed.Conclusions Childhood NHL differs greatly from adult NHL in clinical and pathological aspects.Immunohistochemistry plays an important role in diagnosis.