Giannis Moustafa
Objective: To investigate the incidence, clinicopathologic characteristics and survival of ocular adnexal lymphoma (OAL) in the pediatric population. Methods and analysis: In this retrospective case series, the Surveillance, … Epidemiology and End Results database was accessed to identify individuals with OAL ≤18 years of age, diagnosed between 1973 and 2015. OAL located in the eyelid, conjunctiva, lacrimal apparatus and orbit were included. Main outcome measures were the age-adjusted incidence rates (IRs) per 1 000 000 population at risk (calculated for the period 2000-2015) and descriptive statistics of demographic and clinicopathologic features.
Results: The IR of pediatric OAL was 0.12 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.16) per 1 000 000. Males (0.15; 95% CI 0.10 to 0.22) and blacks (0.24; 95% CI 0.13 to 0.42) had a higher tendency for OAL development. A total of 55 tumors in 54 children were identified. The majority were localized (78.4%), conjunctival (49.1%) lymphomas. Extranodal marginal zone lymphoma (EMZL, 45.5%, n=25) was the most frequent subtype, followed by diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL, 9.1%, n=5), B lymphoblastic lymphoma (7.3%, n=4), follicular lymphoma (5.5%, n=3), Burkitt lymphoma (5.5%, n=3), anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL, 3.6%, n=2), small lymphocytic lymphoma (1.8%, n=1), diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, immunoblastic (1.8%, n=1) and panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma (1.8%, n=1). Localized, low-grade, conjunctival lymphomas were frequently treated with complete excision with or without radiation, while high-grade and distant tumors usually received chemotherapy. Only 29.1% of pediatric OAL cases were treated with radiation. Three out of five (60%) patients with DLBCL died of lymphoma at a median follow-up of 21 (range 10-86) months, and 1 out of 2 (50%) patients with ALCL died of lymphoma at 23 months from diagnosis.
Conclusion: OAL in the pediatric population is rare. The majority of OAL are EMZL and are characterized by excellent prognosis. The histological subtype was found to be the main predictor of outcome with cancer-specific deaths observed in patients with DLBCL and ALCL.
