Alteration in Characteristics and Outcome of Pediatric Burkitt Lymphoma in Turkey: Single-center Experience

Abstract

OBJECTIVEBurkitt Lymphoma (BL) is an aggressive and rapidly progressive form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas(NHL), and BL gives rise to 3-4% of all childhood malignancies. Its event-free survival has increased upto 85% with current treatment protocols. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether there are somealterations of the clinical and laboratory features of BL at our center in Turkey before and now, or not.METHODSWe gathered medical records of a total of 101 patients with BL who were treated in our center retrospectively and assessed for laboratory findings, clinical characteristics, prognostic factors and treatmentprotocols.RESULTSWe found that, nowadays, intra-abdominal presentation of BL was seen more frequently than past at ourcenter in Turkey. However, there was no statistically significant difference. BL was numerically meaningful. Murphy’s treatment protocol was more satisfactory compared to past treatment protocols.CONCLUSIONOur comparison of the previous and present features of patients showed that there is a shift away from thejaw to mostly intra-abdominal disease presentation at our center, like Uganda, in the course of time. Andwe also have a large number of patients and the follow-up period is very long (median 111 months for allpatients) in the literature. We think that the intra-abdominal component is seen more in our geography withtime, but it should be evaluated with more studies in other geographies, especially in Europe and America.