Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the developing world: review of 4539 cases from the International Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Classification Project

Abstract

The distribution of non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes varies around the world, but a large systematic comparative study has never been done. In this study, we evaluated the clinical features and relative frequencies of non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes in five developing regions of the world and compared the findings to the developed world. Five expert hematopathologists classified 4848 consecutive cases of lymphoma from 26 centers in 24 countries using the World Health Organization classification, and 4539 (93.6%) were confirmed to be non-Hodgkin lymphoma, with a significantly greater number of males than females in the developing regions compared to the developed world (P