Clinico-Hematological Findings for Classical Hodgkin's Lymphoma: an Institutional Experience.

BACKGROUND: Classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (cHL) is a B-cell lymphoid neoplasm characterized by a distinctive biological behavior with potentially curable disease characteristics. It is an uncommon hematological malignancy which primarily affects younger individuals. The rationale of this study was to determine its clinico-hematological profile along with stage strati cation in Pakistani patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this descriptive study, adult patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma were enrolled from January 2010 to December 2014.

RESULTS: Sixty two histopathologically con rmed cases of cHL were identified. There were 42 males and 20 females, with a male to female ratio of 2:1. The mean age was 29.7±13.8 years with the median age of 30. B symptoms were present in 72.5% of patients. Histopathologically, the mixed cellularity type constituted 62.9% of cases, followed by nodular sclerosis in 25.8%, lymphocyte predominant in 9.6% and lymphocyte depleted in 1.6%. Stages I and II were present in 43.5% of patients at disease presentation, with 56.4% in stages III and IV.

CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis shows that clinico-pathological features of Hodgkin's lymphoma in Pakistan are comparable to published data. Mixed cellularity is the commonest histological variant and advanced stage at presentation are common findings in our patients.