From January 1972 to December 1983, we studied central nervous system (CNS) involvement in 458 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at Hacettepe University Children's Hospital. All the cases were studied retrospectively with regard to age, sex, localization and extent of tumor, histopathologic subgroup and therapeutic results and were compared with other series. CNS disease was present in 12 patients (2.6%) at the time of diagnosis and 32 children (7.1%) demonstrated CNS involvement in the follow-up period. The onset of CNS involvement was 25.2 ± 3.2 weeks in patients who had received CNS prophylactic therapy and 16.1 ± 2.3 weeks in patients who did not. Modifications in the chemotherapy protocols and more aggressive combined chemotherapy protocols are discussed.

Keywords: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, central nervous system involvement