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Burkitt's Lymphoma

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Burkitt’s lymphoma is a very aggressive type of B-cell NHL with replication approaching 100%. It has three clinical forms; endemic, sporadic and immunodeficiency associated. The endemic variant is common in Africa, the sporadic variant is present in the U.S and Western Europe, and immunocompromised variant occurs mainly in HIV patients. The sporadic variant comprises 30% of pediatric lymphomas and less than 1% of adult NHL.
The most frequently affected site outside of lymph node involvement is the gastrointestinal tract (30-50%). , Primary gastrointestinal lymphoma is rare. Secondary involvement of the gastrointestinal tract is common in lymphoma. Primary gastrointestinal lymphoma presents with symptoms localized to the GI tract or predominating …show more content…

The Epstein-Barr virus has been implicated to have involvement as it can be found in 25-40% immunodeficiency variant cases of Burkit’s lymphoma. Normal gene expression and translation process of cellular microRNA has been shown to be interfered with by Epstein-Barr virus interaction with the cellular microRNA. Burkitt’s lymphoma affects patients with CD4 T cell counts greater than 200/mm3, which may suggest that immunity does not have a role in the matter, however, in our case study it was not the case.
Burkitt’s lymphoma is a very aggressive malignancy and one of the fastest growing amongst human malignancies. It requires immediate and aggressive intervention. Fortunately it does respond to aggressive chemotherapy regardless of it being a very rapidly growing malignancy, chemotherapy being the gold standard treatment for it. Tumor lysis syndrome which is a complication of rapid, massive and acute destruction of the tumor cells can occur during initial chemotherapy and one should remain wary of that fact. The more extended the disease, the more the chances it will get complicated and thus harder to treat. …show more content…

We have been able to hold it at bay by aggressive chemotherapy, mainly derived from pediatric treatment regiments, unspecific to Burkitt’s. Chemotherapy, rituximab and prophylactic CNS treatment should be included as part of the treatment regimens. Early diagnosis with aggressive and early treatment can give very good long term survival rates for the patients, reaching around 70-80%. However, letting the disease advance and get into older age groups can be very rapidly lethal for the patients. It is a disease deserving of great attention and as we are at the edge of breaking through into its treatment. An effort made into early detection can make a vast difference in outcome for the

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