Burkitt's lymphoma. Experience at the Instituto Nacional de Pediatria, Mexico City

Thirty patients with Burkitt's lymphoma sporadic type are presented. All of these cases fulfilled the histologic criteria of Burkitt's tumor. The age ranged from 2 to 12 years, with a median of 4 years. Fever and chills were the most common symptoms. The abdomen was the site of initial presentation in more than half of these cases. Close to one-third of the patients had involvement of the central nervous system. Fifty percent of the patients presented with lactic dehydrogenase elevation. Uric acid was elevated in close to one-fourth of these patients. The sonogram was the most useful technique in those instances of abdominal presentation. All patients were staged according to Ziegler criteria after an initial surgical diagnostic procedure was performed. None of the patients received radiotherapy to the primary tumor. All were submitted to a chemotherapy program for 12 months. Only 26 fitted the criteria of being evaluable. The duration of remission was from 1 to 144 months, with a median of 18.2 months. The actuarial survival was 84% at 3 years. Most of the responders corresponded to Stages A, B, and AR, while Stages C and D had a high mortality rate with elevated lactic dehydrogenase and uric acid levels.