Systemic anaplastic Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in children: a 5 cases report

ABSTRACT

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma [ALCL] accounts for 10 to 15% of childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. It is characterized by a high frequency of extranodal involvement, a wide morphological spectrum and the expression of CD 30. The therapeutic strategy is not yet well established. We report 5 cases of childhood ALCL diagnosed between 1999 and 2002 in the paediatric oncology and haematology department in Casablanca. Three patients presented with a bone lesion while the other 2 patients had both nodal and cutaneous involvement. The phenotype was T in 3 cases and null in 2 cases. All the patients were in stage III according to Murphy classification. The patients were treated according to the SFOP HM 91 protocol. Four patients are in CR with a follow-up of 41, 26, 18 and 11 months respectively. The fifth patient is lost to follow-up in CR. ALCL accounts for 10% of childhood NHL in our department. It is probably underestimated because of the lack of all monoclonal antibodies especially the ALK. All our patients achieved a CR and 4 of them are alive and disease free survivors. In conclusion, this type of childhood NHL seems to have a good prognosis in our context and more efforts have to be done in the diagnosis of this type of NHL