A Report of AIDS-Related Lymphoma (ARL) in Korea.

The prevalence of ARL is thought to be on increase in Korea. The aim of this study is to review cases of ARL in Korea from August 1998 through July 2006. A total of 16 cases of ARL were reported from 6 institutions in Korea. The patients consisted of 14 males and 2 females at a median age of 41 (range, 30–68) on diagnosis of AIDS. ARL developed at their median age of 43 (range, 32–69). The histologic diagnosis was diffuse large B cell lymphoma (n=9), Burkitt lymphoma (n=1), peripheral T cell lymphoma (n=1), NK/T cell lymphoma (n=1), primary CNS lymphoma (n=1), primary effusion lymphoma (n=1), Hodgkin lymphoma (n=1), or plasmablastic lymphoma (n=1). The disease extent was unknown in 4, stage I in 3, stage II in 4, stage III in 1, stage IV in 5. B symptom was noted in 5 at presentation. Seven of 16 (43.8%) was receiving highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) before the diagnosis of ARL. All the patients were given HAART after the diagnosis of ARL. The response to HARRT was evaluable in 9 patients based on CD4+ cell count and HIV viral load, among which 8 (88%) responded. Four of 16 patients did not receive chemotherapy against medical advice. The chemotherapy regimen included CHOP (n=6), CEOP-B (n=3), m-BACOD (n=2), or CODOX-M/IVAC (n=1). Four patients who refused chemotherapy were lost to follow up. Of 12 patients treated with chemotherapy, 7 were alive in remission, 1 alive in disease, 1 died of treatment related complication, 1 died of progressive lymphoma, 2 died of AIDS related causes. The response to chemotherapy included CR in 7 (70%), PR in 2 (20%) and PD 1 (10%). The median follow-up duration was 15.2 months (range, 0.5–53.2) and the median survival time 43.9 months.