Clinicopathological Profile of Pediatric Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma in Egypt and Role of CD20 Expression

Asmaa Salama; Lubna O. Abdel–Salam; MahaMosaad; MarwaAbdelsattar; Ahmad Kamel

Volume : III, Issue : XII, December - 2014

Clinicopathological Profile of Pediatric Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma in Egypt and Role of CD20 Expression

Asmaa Salama, Lubna O. Abdel Ndash Salam, Mahamosaad, Marwaabdelsattar, Ahmad Kamel

Abstract :

Background Although CHL is genotypically considered a B-cell lymphoma, CD20 positive Hodgkin Reed Sternberg (HRS) cells have been reported in 20% to 80% of cases. The relation between CD20 expression in (HRS) cells and prognosis of CHL is still controversial. We conduct this study to determine the profile of pediatric Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma and prevalence of CD20 expression as well as its significance. Patients and methods It is a retrospective study that carried out on 70 cases diagnosed as CHL at the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University during the period from 2005-2011 and subjected to CD20 immunostaining. Correlation with disease free survival (DFS) was done. Results Nodular sclerosis was the dominant subtype encountered being detected in 43 cases (61.4%) followed by mixed cellularity (21 cases, 30%) then lymphocyte rich (6 cases, 8.6%). Regarding nodular sclerosis cases; 72.1% of cases were grade I and 27.9% were grade II according to BNLI system. CD20 expression was detected in eleven (15.7%) out of all seventy cases. The 2-year disease free survival was 84.4%. Early stage (I and II), and negative bone marrow were significantly associated with a better 2-year DFS. Regarding nodular sclerosis cases, grade I cases according to BNLI grading system showed higher two year DFS than grade II, 89.3% versus 65.6% with significant difference. Despite that the 2-year DFS was slightly better in CD20 positive patients than in CD20 negative patients; yet, the statistical difference was not significant. Conclusion BNLI grading system for nodular sclerosis, CHL, is more beneficial for predicting patient�s outcome. CD20 expression is found in in a proportion of CHL cases, but no significant relationship could be established with prognosis.