ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To probe the clinical and pathological characteristics of nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The pathologically confirmed 14 cases of NLPHL patients (since January 2001 to December 2012) were collected from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital. The laboratory examinations' results, clinical manifestations, short-term and long-term outcomes of these cases were analyzed in this study.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The immunohistochemistry of all cases showed CD20 (+)/weak (+) and CD30 (-), most of them CD15 (-). The morbidity of NLPHL during the same period of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) was around 6.3%. The median age was 38 (13-54) years old, 92.9% of the patients sought medical advice according to self-feeling of superficial lymph nodes. All patients' disease progressed slowly and the sizes of lymph nodes were within 3 cm. Of the 14 patients, 7 patients were treated with chemotherapy and 7 patients chemoradiotherapy. The treatment results showed CR+CRu rate as 85.7% and ORR 100.0%. The rates of 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were 85.7% and 100.0% respectively. Short and long term efficacies between chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy had no significant differences. Meanwhile, varieties chemotherapy regimens showed no significant effects on short- and long-term efficacies (P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The pathologically confirmed 14 cases of NLPHL had the classical and tumorous maxi cell, which showed CD20 (+)/weak (+) and CD30 (-), very few cases showed weak CD15 (+). The incidence of NLPHL was low. The majority of the NLPHL patients were middle-aged and youth. Moreover, the better short- and long-term outcomes over classical HL ones were observed regardless of patients' stage.</p>