Malignant Lymphoma In Childhood

Abstract

The extreme sensitivity to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and the relatively high incidence of long-term survivals observed in the treatment of African lymphoma is now well known (Burkitt, Hutt, and Wright, Cancer, 18: 1965, 399, Clifford, East African Medical Journal 43 (1966), 179, Ngu, Treatment of Burkitt’s Tumour, 1966, 204-208). The observation that long term remissions, amounting to possible cures, can follow a single dose of chemotherapy (Burkitt, op. cit., 1966, 197-203)) suggests a strong anti-tumour response on the part of the patient. This observation naturally prompts the question whether the immunological response in the absence of chemotherapy could be sufficient alone to eradicate a tumour. Before the availability of suitable chemotherapy these tumours were always observed to grow rapidly during the period the child was retained in hospital. Now that the response to therapy has been shown to be related to the size of tumour when first treated, there is no justification for withholding treatment, and the possibility of observing spontaneous regression is consequently limited to the rare instances where treatment is refused following diagnostic biopsy. Two patients who fall into this category have been followed, and both remain symptom-free.