Demographic and clinical characteristics of lymphoma patients from Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Lymphoma is a malignancy of the lymphatic system. As no studies have previously been conducted about lymphoma in Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia, we hereby present first report on demographic and clinical characteristics of lymphoma patients from Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia from 2009 to 2018. PATIENTS AND METHODS: All histologically confirmed lymphoma patients from 2009-2018 attending KAH were included in the study. BCL2, BCL6 and C-MYC rearrangements were detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization. Data was analyzed using SPSS. RESULTS: Male to female ratio was 1:1.52 with 23 (39.7%) male and 35 (60.3%) female patients. Mean age was 35.9 years in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and 54.4 years in non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). HL was found to be more common in the young age group (0-18 years, 85.7%), which is a new finding. NHL was more common in age group (41-60 years) (80%, P=0.002). Overall, HL was more common than NHL (60.3% vs 39.7%). The most common subtype of HL was nodular Sclerosis type (52.2%), while diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) was the most common subtype (74.3%) of NHL. The most common sites of involvement (other than lymph nodes) in HL were liver and mediastinum (19% and 18% respectively). However, the most common sites of involvement in the NHL were liver and bone marrow (12.90%), followed by the spleen and stomach (9.67%). BCL-2 and BCL-6 were the most frequently positive markers in NHL, especially in DLBCL. Moreover, it was found that DLBCL had a more aggressive course and associated with more deaths (5/26; 19.2%, P= 0.047). Triple hit lymphoma was only found in follicular lymphoma patients with overall frequency of 1.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that in Al-Ahsa area, HL is more prevalent in pediatric patients. Moreover, there is high frequency of DLBCL among NHL subtypes as compared to the western world.