Descriptive epidemiology of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas in Hatay

Abstract. The incidence of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas (NHL) varies among different parts of the world. NHL are the 12th most common cancer in Europe and increasing dramatically during the last years. In this study, it was aimed to analyse the descriptive epidemiology of NHL in Hatay region with retrospective archieve datas. One hundred and thirty-three NHL cases between 2005 and 2013 have been reviewed retrospectively in the Pathology Department of the Mustafa Kemal University. All of the cases were classified according to World Health Organization modified in 2008. Eighty-two (61.7%) cases were male and 51 (38.3%) cases were female. Ninety-two of the cases (69.2%) were nodal lymphoma, and the remaining 41 (30.8%) were extranodal lymphoma. The most common extranodal involvement regions were tonsils and nasopharynx with frequencies of 21.9% (9) and 19.5% (8), respectively. The age distribution pattern revealed that NHL were mostly diagnosed in the ages of 41-65 years in nodal (41.3%) and extranodal sited NHL groups (53.6%). The most frequent NHL was diffuse large cell B cell lymphoma (50.4%) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (17.3%). Our results were similar with the literature. Further epidemiologic studies with larger series defining the profile of NHL subtypes may be more worthy. Key words: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, histologic subtype, extranodal involvement, descriptive epidemiology