Pediatric Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: Ten-Year Experience with Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster (BFM) Protocols from a Tertiary Care Hospital in Turkey

Abstract

Objective: Progress in therapy of childhood non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is one of the stunning success stories of the past two decades. In developed countries, more than 80% of children with NHL can now be cured with modern therapy, even patients with widely disseminated disease. The aim of this study is to analyze all NHL patients who were treated in a single tertiary center in Turkey. Methods: An analysis of data of children with NHL, diagnosed and treated between 2003 and 2012 according to the original Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster (BFM) protocol in Kocaeli University Pediatric Oncology Department was carried out. Results: Forty-seven children were eligible for analysis. Mean age at diagnosis was 9.6 years with a male: female ratio of 1.9. Thirty-one patients (66%) were mature B-cell NHL with 23 patients (48.9%) Burkitt lymphoma, 7 patients (14.8%) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, 1 patient (%2) primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma; 13 patients (27.6%) were lymphoblastic lymphoma with 11 patients (23.3%) T-lymphoblastic lymphoma and 2 patients (4.2%) B-lymphoblastic lymphoma, and also 3 patients (6.3%) were mature-T cell lymphoma-anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Four-year event-free survival was 78.7% and overall survival was 80.8%. Conclusion: These results with BFM protocol administration reflect good treatment outcome in our patients.