Treatment options for pediatric-type follicular lymphoma

Pediatric-type follicular lymphoma is rare in children, with only case reports and small case series to guide therapy. The outcomes of patients with pediatric-type follicular lymphoma are excellent, with an event-free survival (EFS) rate of about 95%.[6,8-11,13] Unlike in adult follicular lymphoma, the clinical course in pediatric patients is not dominated by relapses.[6,8,11,12]

Treatment options for pediatric-type follicular lymphoma include the following:

Studies suggest that for children with stage I disease who had a complete resection, a watch-and-wait approach without chemotherapy may be indicated. Patients with higher-stage disease also have a favorable outcome with low-intensity and intermediate-intensity chemotherapy, with an EFS rate of 94% and an overall survival (OS) rate of 100% (2-year median follow-up).[2,6,9,10] Although the number of pediatric patients with pediatric follicular-type lymphoma is too small to perform meaningful clinical trials, studies of adult patients with follicular lymphoma support the addition of rituximab to standard treatment regimens.

For patients with BCL2-rearranged tumors, treatment similar to that of adult patients with follicular lymphoma is administered.

For more information, see the Follicular Lymphoma (Grades 1–3a) section in Indolent B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment.