Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in childhood: clinical and epidemiological characteristics and survival analysis at a single center in Northeast Brazil

Objective:Todescribetheclinicalanddemographiccharacteristicsofnon-Hodgkin’slymphomapatientsdiagnosed atthePediatricOncologyUnitattheInstitutoMaterno-InfantilProfessorFernandoFigueira(IMIP)overa9-yearperiod, and also to describe their survival rates and possible associations between the survival rates and the clinical and demographic characteristics analyzed in the study. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Data were collected by a retrospective review of the charts of all 110 patients admitted to our unit during the period of May 1994 through May 2003. Probability of survival was calculated in accordance with the techniques of Kaplan-Meier, using log rank to evaluate differences between the groups. Results:The average age was 6.1 years. The male/female ratio was 2.4:1. The most frequent histological subtype wasBurkitt’slymphoma.Themajorityofpatientshadbeendiagnosedwithadvanceddisease(stageIIIorIVofMurphy’s Classification) and was from rural areas. Family income per capita was lower than 1/2 minimum wage in 36.4% of cases; maternal illiteracy was observed in 12.7% of cases. The 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were70±4%and68.4±4%,respectively.Noneoftheclinical-demographiccharacteristicshadasignificantassociation with the probability of survival (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Children admitted to the IMIP seemed to be affected by non-Hodgkin lymphoma at a younger age, with a higher incidence of Burkitt’s lymphoma and with survival rates similar to those described in the literature of developed countries. No clinical demographic characteristics had a statistically significant association with prognosis.