Comparison of pediatric and adult lymphomas involving the mediastinum characterized by distinctive clinicopathological and radiological features

Lymphomas involving the mediastinum occur in a wide age range and represent heterogeneous histological subtypes with various clinical symptoms and complex radiological findings. However, studies that describe the clinical and radiological features of different subtypes among Chinese pediatric and adult patients are limited. We analyzed the clinical, radiological and pathological features of 31 pediatric lymphomas involving the mediastinum, and compared them to the features of 21 adult patients. Although several histological subtypes were identified in adults, pediatric patients presented with T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma/T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-LBL/T-ALL) and classical Hodgkin lymphomas (CHL) in 24 and 7 cases, respectively. Compared to adults, pediatric patients were more likely to be male ( P = 0.089) and showed a higher incidence of T-LBL/T-ALL ( P = 0.001), prevalence of dyspnea ( P = 0.001), frequency of stage IV tumors ( P = 0.008), and ratio of tumor diameter to maximum transthoracic diameter ( P = 0.015). T-LBL/T-ALL patients presented with a higher frequency with stage IV disease ( P = 0.000 and P = 0.001), compression of the blood vessels ( P = 0.005 and P = 0.017), and pleural effusions ( P = 0.001, for both) than CHL and PMBL patients. Compared to adults, pediatric patients with mediastinal lymphomas presented with exclusive histological subtypes of T-LBL/T-ALL and CHL, which showed distinctive characteristics of histological distribution, clinical presentation and radiological assessments.