CHARACTERISTICS OF MALIGNANT-LYMPHOMA IN EASTERN TAIWAN - COMPARISON BETWEEN ABORIGINES AND NONABORIGINES

To study the characteristics of malignant lymphoma in aboriginal and n onaboriginal patients in eastern Taiwan, the records of 90 patients tr eated from July 1986 to September 1994 were reviewed. Immunohistologic staining with UCHL-1 and L-26 was used to determine immunophenotype. There were 20 aboriginal and 70 nonaboriginal patients (22% vs 78%). A mong them, three had Hodgkin's diseases (HD) and 87 had non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL). Comparing the histology of malignant lymphoma in abor iginal and nonaboriginal patients, there was no case of HD or follicul ar lymphoma in aborigines. Concerning primary extranodal lymphoma, no aboriginal patients were found to have gastric lymphoma, while eight n onaboriginal patients did. Among patients with intermediate and high-g rade NHL, aboriginal patients had a higher rate of B symptoms (weight loss, fever, night sweats) than did nonaboriginal patients. In T cell lymphoma, three out of four (75%) aboriginal patients had angioimmunob lastic lymphadenopathy with dysproteinemia as compared with three out of 20 (15%) nonaboriginal patients. There were no significant differen ces in demographic data, stage or distribution of immunophenotype betw een the two groups. Several combination chemotherapy regimens were use d and only 31 patients were considered evaluable, of which 12 were abo riginal and 19 were nonaboriginal patients. No distinct difference was found between aboriginal and nonaboriginal patients in overall respon se rate, complete response rate, disease-free survival or overall surv ival. Comparison of our results with other lymphoma studies in Taiwan revealed that the frequencies of HD and follicular lymphoma were highe r in northern Taiwan studies than in southern and eastern Taiwan studi es, and the frequency of primary extranodal lymphoma was much higher i n eastern Taiwan than in other areas. While the rate of T cell lymphom a in NHL for nonaboriginal patients was similar to that of northern Ta iwan studies, it was closer to that of southern Taiwan studies in abor iginal patients.