Childhood lymphomas in Yemen. Clinicopathological study

OBJECTIVE: To find out the frequency of childhood lymphomas in all ages, and to describe patterns of lymphomas in relation to gender and site in Yemen.

METHODS: This is a descriptive record-based study of 1167 cases of lymphomas diagnosed by 3 pathologists in the Department of Pathology, Sana'a University, Sana'a, Yemen from 1st January 2004 to 30th December 2007. The diagnoses were made on hematoxylin and eosin stained, and categorized non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) according to the National Cancer Institute Working Formulation classification, and Hodgkin's disease (HD) according to Rye classification.

RESULTS: Out of 1167 lymphomas, 801 (68.6%) were NHL, and 366 (31.4%) were HD, amongst these 347 (29.7%) were patients aged </=18 years, and 221 (63.7%) had NHL, and 126 (36.3%) had HD. The NHL found was Burkitt (64.8%), diffuse large cell lymphoma (23%), lymphoblastic lymphoma (6.3%), and other miscellaneous types account for 5.9%. The histological types of HD were mixed cellularity (72.3%), lymphocyte predominance (16.6%), nodular sclerosis (7.9%), lymphocyte depletion (0.8%), and nonclassified cases (2.4%). The female to male ratio was 1:1.7. The nodal site accounts for 205 (59%) cases, and 142 (41%) were extranodal. The HD was totally nodal, whereas NHL showed 37.4% nodal, and 62.6% extranodal.

CONCLUSION: Childhood lymphomas in this study is of high grade NHL, and of less favorable prognostic type in HD. This indicates that childhood lymphomas in Yemen have similar patterns as that found in other international studies.