Pediatric non‐Hodgkin lymphoma: Characteristics, stratification, and treatment at a single institute in Thailand.

Background: In the modern era of chemotherapy, the outcome of pediatric non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) continues to improve internationally. Limited data such as information on epidemiology and survival, however, are available in Asian countries. Methods: Children (≤15 years old) diagnosed with histologically proven NHL from 1998 to 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: In total, 114 patients were enrolled; they were predominantly male (65.8%) and had advanced disease (stage III, IV; 71.9%). Of these, 22.8% had Burkitt lymphoma, 20.2% had diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma, 21.1% had lymphoblastic lymphoma, 20.2% had large cell lymphoma, and 15.8% had peripheral T‐cell lymphoma. Twenty‐nine patients died, especially of uncontrolled disease (62.1%) and infection (20.7%). During a median follow up of 78.4 months, Kaplan–Meier 5 year event‐free and overall survival rates were 71.5% ± 4.3% and 74.8% ± 4.1%, respectively, regardless of subtype. B symptoms (i.e. systemic symptoms of fever, night sweats, and weight loss that can be associated with both Hodgkin's lymphoma and non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma) and advanced disease had a significant negative impact on 5 year survival. No other prognostic factor was found, but survival tended to have a negative correlation with age. Conclusions: Pediatric NHL is aggressive, with a high prevalence of peripheral T‐cell lymphoma. The present treatment stratification seems to be effective compared with that used in developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]