Aim: To analyse the clinicopathological features of sporadic Burkitt lymphoma (sBL).
Methods: In a review of 1682 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosed in the First Affiliated Hospital and Zhongshan School of Medicine, from 1998 to 2010, 20 cases (1.2%) of sBL were identified. Histopathological examination, immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridisation were used to analyse the clinicopathological features of these cases.
Results: Of the 20 cases of sBL, 18 patients were male and two were female. The mean age was 18 years (range 2-67 years). Extranodal presentation was more common than nodal presentation (55% vs 15%). Histopathologically, 18 cases (90%) showed monotonous medium-sized tumour cells, and two cases showed cells that were slightly pleomorphic in nuclear size and shape. Immunophenotypically, MUM1 was positive in three of 17 cases (17.6%). EBER expression was shown in five of 17 cases (29.4%), and all EBER-positive sBLs were Bcl-6+/MUM1-.
Conclusion: sBL is rare and mainly affects male children, with predominantly extranodal presentation. MUM1 expression was found in some sBLs. EBER expression was found in 29.4% of sBLs from southern China, an area with a well-known high incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which is closely associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection.