==== Front South Asian J CancerSouth Asian J CancerSAJCSouth Asian Journal of Cancer2278-330X2278-4306Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd India SAJC-7-16210.4103/sajc.sajc_60_18Letter to the EditorProfile of non-Hodgkin lymphoma: An Indian perspective Gogia Ajay Das Chandan K. Kumar Lalit Sharma Atul Sharma M. C. 1Mallick Soumya 1Department of Medical Oncology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India1 Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, IndiaCorrespondence to: Dr. Ajay Gogia, E-mail: ajaygogia@gmail.comJul-Sep 2018 7 3 162 162 Copyright: © 2018 The South Asian Journal of Cancer2018This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. ==== Body Dear Editor, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) subtype, pattern of presentation as well as patient population, varies with geographical regions. The World Health Organization (WHO) 2016 lymphoma classification clarifies the diagnosis and management of NHL in relation to the stages of lymphomagenesis. It refines the diagnostic criteria to incorporate the expanding genetic/molecular landscape of NHL.[1] In view of comparative data regarding the distribution of NHL subtypes in India is scarce in the literature, we did this retrospective analysis of newly diagnosed patients with NHL treated in a tertiary care center. A total of 390 cases of adult (>18 years) NHL over a period of 27 months (May 1, 2013 and July 31, 2015) were registered in the Department of Medical Oncology at our institute (AIIMS, New Delhi). The individual NHL cases were retrospectively reviewed according to the WHO lymphoma classification 2016 revision, immunophenotypic expression and morphology. B-cell lymphomas formed 347 (89%) whereas T-cell lymphomas formed 43 (11%) of the NHLs. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) was the most common subtype which was present in 267 (68.5%) cases. Follicular lymphoma (FL), mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), marginal zone B-cell lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma, and Burkitt's lymphoma amounted to 35 (9%), 20 (5%), 9 (2.3%), 5 (1.3%), and 5 (1.3%) of all NHLs cases, respectively. Among the T-cell lymphomas, peripheral T-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified (PTCL-NOS) was the most common subtype 15 (3.85%), followed by anaplastic large-cell lymphomas, T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, NK/T-cell lymphoma, and angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma which accounted for 9 (2.3%), 7 (1.8%), 5 (1.3%), and 2 (0.75%) of all NHL cases, respectively. Details of all NHL are given in Table 1. Table 1 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes in adults The present study of North Indian population shows key differences in the presentation as compared to the developing country and other parts of India. Details of epidemiological studies are summarized in Table 2. Table 2 Subtype distribution of lymphoma across India and the west (USA) Classifying NHL according to B- and T-cell type has therapeutic and prognostic significance. Epidemiology of the Indian subcontinent is marked different from that of the Western literature in view of marked preponderance of high-grade lymphoma especially DLBCL. In this study, 68.5% patients were DLBCL, which is significantly higher as compared to previous reported study from India and the West.[23456] FL and MCL were the second and third most common subtype of B-NHL, and PTCL-NOS is the most common T-cell lymphoma in adult. The younger average age (median 50 years) of our patients is consistent with the pattern seen in most other malignancies in India, due to the effect of a younger population pyramid in our country.[78] The present study of North Indian population shows key differences in the NHL subtypes as compared to the developed world and other parts of India. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest. ==== Refs 1 Swerdlow SH Campo E Pileri SA Harris NL Stein H Siebert R The 2016 revision of the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of lymphoid neoplasms Blood 2016 6 643 569 2 Nimmagadda RB Digumarti R Nair R Bhurani D Raina V Aggarwal S Histopathological pattern of lymphomas and clinical presentation and outcomes of diffuse large B cell lymphoma: A multicenter registry based study from India Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2013 34 299 304 24604961 3 Arora N Manipadam MT Nair S Frequency and distribution of lymphoma types in a tertiary care hospital in South India: Analysis of 5115 cases using the World Health Organization 2008 classification and comparison with world literature Leuk Lymphoma 2013 54 1004 11 22971239 4 Naresh KN Srinivas V Soman CS Distribution of various subtypes of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in India: A study of 2773 lymphomas using R.E.A.L. and WHO classifications Ann Oncol 2000 11 Suppl 1 63 7 5 Sahni CS Desai SB Distribution and clinicopathologic characteristics of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in India: A study of 935 cases using WHO classification of lymphoid neoplasms (2000) Leuk Lymphoma 2007 48 122 33 17325856 6 Nair R Arora N Mallath MK Epidemiology of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in India Oncology 2016 91 Suppl 1 18 25 27462703 7 Gogia A Raina V Kumar L Sharma A Sharma MC Mallick SR Follicular lymphoma: An institutional analysis Asian Pac J Cancer Prev 2017 18 681 5 28440975 8 Das CH Gogia A Kumar L Sharma A Sharma MC Mallick SR Mantle cell lymphoma: A North Indian tertiary care centre experience Asian Pac J Cancer Prev 2016 17 4583 6 27892666