Differences in the Distribution of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in Public Versus Private Institution in a Latin American Country: A Cohort of 5,807 Cases

Differences in the Distribution of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in public versus private institution in a Latin American country: A cohort of 5,807 cases.

Background: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is the most frequent hematological malignancy. B-cell (BCL) and T-cell (TCL) NHL subtypes differs in high income and low-and middle-income countries. In Peru, the healthcare system (HCS) is divided mainly into public and private institutions. We previously demonstrated that there is a difference in the distribution of NHL between the HCS. We aimed to describe the subtypes of NHL seen according to healthcare facilities in a large cohort.

Methods: We reviewed medical records at National Cancer Institute and Oncosalud, both the leading public and private cancer centers in Peru, respectively. All patients diagnosed with NHL from 2010-2019 according to the 2016 WHO classification were included. Baseline characteristics were compared between public and private institutions using Student's t test and Chi-square as appropriate. Results: A total of 5,807 NHL were included from both institutions. The median age was 60 years (range 15-103), 50.6% were male. Most patients NHL cases were encountered at the public institution (92.4%, n = 5,368); 82.9% (n = 4,815) were BCL and 17.1% (n = 992) TCL. Differences of BCL and TCL frequencies were seen among institutions. More BCL cases were seen at the private institution (86.1%, n = 378 versus 82.7%, n = 4,437, respectively) whereas TCL were common in the public institution (17.3%, n = 931 versus 13.9%, n = 61, respectively) (p < 0.065). The most frequent BCL was DLBCL with 68.6% (n = 3045) and 54.2% (n = 205) seen in public and private institutions, respectively (p < 0.001). The second most frequent BCL was follicular lymphoma (FL) with 11.2% (n = 495) and 20.9% (n = 79) seen in the public and private institutions, respectively (p < 0.001). Chronic lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL) and Burkitt lymphoma (BL) were most frequent in private institution (CLL 6.3%, n = 24 vs. 3.5%, n = 154, p = 0.004; BL 3.4%, n = 13 vs. 1.4%, n = 60, p = 0.001). The most frequent TCL was peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (PTCL, NOS) (24.5%, n = 228) for the public institution and mycosis fungoides (MF) (42.6%, n = 26) for the private institution. The second most frequent TCL was natural killer/TCL (NKTCL) (23.5%, n = 219) for the public institution, and PTCL, NOS (21.3%, n = 13) for the private institution. There was significant difference in the number of NKTCL and MF cases seen during the study period among institutions (NKTCL public 23.5%, n = 219 vs. private 4.9%, n = 3, p = 0.001; MF public 9.1%, n = 90 vs. private 42.6%, n = 26, p <0.001).

Conclusions: The distribution of NHL subtypes differs according to the type of healthcare system in Peru. Our large cohort confirms that DLBCL and NKTCL are more frequent in patients treated at the public cancer center than in private center. On the contrary FL, CLL, BL and MF are more frequent in private cancer center. The difference in the distribution of BCL and TCL was not statistically significant.