Clinical and epidemiological characterisation of Burkitt's lymphoma: an eight-year case study at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Abstract

Endemic Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) is a juvenile malignant neoplasm of B-lymphocyte origin, markedly affected by climate, vegetation and geographical location. This real country-based, cross-sectional, retrospective study reviews all out-patient clinical records of patients histologically and/or clinically diagnosed with BL from January, 2000 to December, 2007 at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ghana, a country within the malaria and lymphoma belts of the world. The aim of the study is to clinically and epidemiologically characterise all cases of BL over an eight-year period to ascertain the most common form of BL demographically prevalent. A mean age of 6.9 +/- 2.7 (range: 1-16) was observed. Males generally dominated in incidence (M:F=1.43:1, P<0.001) and significantly with facial presentation (P<0.05). Females weakly dominated in abdominal tumour presentation (P>0.05). The age range 4-8 years was the high risk range (P<0.001) for both sexes. Males were affected early in life (4-7 years) compared to their female counterparts (6-11 years). Of the 551 cases reviewed, 48.3%, 32.7%, 15.8% and 3.3% involved the face, abdomen, combined facial and abdominal and either facial or abdominal with central nervous system (CNS) involvement (usually paraplegia), respectively. An intriguing observation was evident between facial and combined facial and abdominal cases which exhibited reversed trends in incidence. Three regions within the forest zone showed significantly higher (P<0.001) incidences compared to the seven cohorts from the coastal and savannah agro-ecological zones of Ghana. No region was explicitly associated with any particular clinical presentation. The study has shown that although BL can present with demographic patterns in prevalence within a given geographical location, no clinical characterisation is associated with such patterns.