Clinical features and treatment of childhood malignant lymphoma in Uganda

A series of 66 patients with Burkitt's lymphoma or childhood lymphoma of the histiocytic or lymphoblastic type has been analysed. The six patients with histiocytic lymphomas had clinical features, response to therapy and survival rates which clearly distinguished this group from Burkitt's lymphoma. Of the six patients with lymphoblastic lymphomas, however, three presented with clinical features indistinguishable from Burkitt's lymphoma while two had facial tumors which showed atypical features. The response to chemotherapy with CTX was more favorable in the lymphoblastic than in the histiocytic group, and the survival rate in this small number of patients falls midway between those of histiocytic lymphoma and Burkitt's lymphoma. Thus, the clinical evaluation of Ugandan children with lymphoblastic lymphoma did not clearly distinguish this group from patients with Burkitt's lymphoma, and casts some doubt on the use of clinical features or response to therapy as diagnostic criteria.