Skin involvement in children with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

This study was performed to present our clinical experience with patients with cutaneous malignant lymphoma. Eight of 856 (1%) patients admitted to Hacettepe University Pediatric Oncology Department were diagnosed with skin involvement of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma between November 1971 and December 1992. At the time of diagnosis, the mean patient age was 9.5 years (range 4-15). The male-to-female ratio was 1.7:1. Three of the eight cases had primary cutaneous lymphoma, four had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with skin involvement and one case cutaneous lymphoma as a part of advanced stage NHL. According to Murphy's clinical classification, three cases with primary cutaneous lymphoma were in stage I E, two of the remaining five patients were in stage III and three patients with organ involvement were in stage IV. All eight patients' skin lesions were 6 to 10 cm in diameter, hyperemic, firm and nodular. The skin of the head and neck region, especially the right cheek, was the most involved area. In primary cutaneous lymphomas, the duration between involvement and diagnosis was two to six months. All but two patients received the LSA2 L2 protocol. The other two were treated with the COP protocol and a modified COMP protocol. Three patients in stage I E are now living disease-free. One of the two patients in stage III is disease-free, and the other is in the fifth month of therapy with very advanced disease and is lost to follow-up. Among the three patients in stage IV, one was living disease-free for 38 months after diagnosis, while the other two patients are still under therapy without disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)