Demographic characteristics and clinicopathological features of lymphoma (HL and NHL) in Libya

Purpose: To establish the prevalence of lymphoma in Libya and to describe the demographic characteristics of patients based on the official records of the national oncology institute and to mention some of the clinicopathological characteristics to be compared with other results that have been recently published internationally. Materials and Methods: Between 2013 and 2015, 25 lymphoma patients, ranging in age from 15 to 90 (mean age: 43), registered at the National Oncology Institute in Sabratha, were examined for the incidence rate of lymphoma and the identification of epidemiological and clinicopathological aspects. The tumor was divided into stages 1, 2, 3, and 4 with a representative percent of 8%, 44%, 36%, and 12 % respectively. For grading the samples, at least one tissue section of 5 μm thickness was stained with hematoxylin and eosin red stain. Results: There were 6,4 new cases of lymphoma per 100,000 people in Libya. This figure can be broken down into 3.8 NHL and 2.6 HL. Lymphoma incidence in the Libyan population is highly correlated with middle age, with almost 60% of cases occurring in those between 20 and 60 years old, with a mean age of 43. The total number of cases belonging to grade 1 was 6 cases (24%) divided into 4 (66.7%) in the coast region, 2 (33.3%) in the mountain region, and 0 cases in the south region. Grade 3 was represented the higher number of patients with 10 patients (40%) as compared with grade 2 (8 cases, 32%) and grade 4 (1 case, 4%) and most patients were located in the coast region. Additionally, the number of patients with NHL was 18 (72%) divided into 14 (77.8%) in the coast region, 2 (11%) in the mountain region, and 2 (11%) in the south whereas the number of patients with HL was 7 (28%) divided into 6 (85%) in coast region and 1 (14.3%) in the south region with no HL cases in mountain region. Conclusion: The results suggest the importance of achieving more studies in the future to explore the risk factors behind the prevalence of such type of blood cancer in Libya. (Open J Bio Med Res 2022;1:28-32.)