Classic Hodgkin lymphoma in Guatemalan children of age less than six years: analysis of immune regulatory pathways and the tumor microenvironment. Leukemia & lymphoma Silva, O., Charu, V., Ewalt, M. D., Metcalf, R. A., Zhao, S., Castellanos, E. M., Orellana, E., Natkunam, Y., Luna-Fineman, S. 2021: 1–13

Abstract

Classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) in young children (ages 0-6) is rare in high income countries (HICs) but is more prevalent in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Guatemala. Given that the majority of cHL studies have evaluated adolescent/adults, and the immune system changes with age, we sought to characterize Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) expression, immune regulatory pathway markers and the tumor microenvironment in 42 children ages 0-6 with cHL from Guatemala. We found a very high frequency of EBV expression (97.5%). Hodgkin cells showed increased expression of PD1 ligands and CD137, indicative of shared immune regulatory mechanisms with adult cHL. Pediatric cHL also showed an increase in CD8+ tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and tumor associated macrophages within the tumor microenvironment. Despite 25 having high risk disease, only 4 patients died from progressive disease, relapse or infection.

View details for DOI 10.1080/10428194.2021.1885666

View details for PubMedID 33627023