ABSTRACT
Non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) are haematological malignancies whose clinical presentation can resemble those of acute leukaemia with or without features of a solid tumour. These lymphomas tend to spread along lymphoid tissue distibutions, namely: lymph nodes, thymus, Waldeyer ring, Peyers patches and bone marrow. The majority of childhood and adolescents NHL are high-grade and clinically aggressive. As a significant number of patients with NHL will present with rapidly growing tumour with potential life-threatening complications, tissue procurement using the least invasive procedure and staging evaluation should be carried out as soon as possible. Although morphology and immunophenotyping of NHL material provide the cornerstone for making the diagnosis, cytogenetic and molecular studies usually add prognostic information. Multiagent chemotherapy is the treatment of choice in childhood and adolescent NHL, which should be considered as a systemic malignancy even when the disease is localised. The striking haematological finding is an elevated white cell count with circulating blasts, relatively well preserved haemoglobin and a moderate thrombocytopenia.
