[A review of childhood cases of malignant lymphoma in Osaka, Japan].

Fifty-one cases of malignant lymphomas in patients under 20 years of age have been reviewed in Osaka, Japan. The breakdown of these cases revealed 6 cases (11.8%) of Hodgkin's disease (HD) and 45 cases (88.2%) of a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Both the HD and NHL cases were determined by using the Rye classification, as well as the Rappaport, Kiel, and LSG classifications, respectively. The results have shown that (1) the incidence of HD in childhood is the same as that seen in the adult in Japan; (2) that a NHL of the nodular type is rare in Japan as it is in Western countries; (3) that any significant differences were not present in the distribution of each histologic subtype in the cases of a NHL among Japan and Western countries, and that the lymphoblastic type was the most common. From this study it is concluded that geographical differences were not a factor in comparing cases of childhood malignant lymphomas in Japan and Western countries.