Systematic analysis of cases of lymphoma with autoimmune hemocytopenia reported in the Chinese literature in the past 30 years / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

The authors analyzed 140 cases of malignant lymphoma (ML) associated with autoimmune cytopenia (AIC), including autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA), immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), pure red cell aplasia (PRCA), and Evans syndrome. The analysis was based on cases reported in the literature as well as the reference lists of papers in this field from 1989 to 2019 by Chinese scholars. The number of cases involving various non-Hodgkin's lymphoma subtypes was small (n=1-28). Nevertheless, interesting and sometimes unexpected differences were noted among different types of ML and AIC. All types of AIC except AIN were seen to coexist with ML, and the increasing order of incidence was as follows warm antibody-AIHA >ITP >cold antibody-AIHA>PRCA>Evans syndrome. CAS was only seen with B-cell lymphomas, WA-AIHA, and ITP, Evans syndrome was more frequent in B-cell lymphomas and PRCA predominantly occurred with T-cell lymphomas. Anti-lymphoma treatment seemed to be more effective against AIC than conventional therapy with steroids or immunoglobulin. Although based on a literature survey, this compilation of data indicates a complex relation between lymphoma and AIC and warrants more attention and specific studies.