African Burkitt Lymphoma: Age-Specific Risk and Correlations with Malaria Biomarkers

African Burkitt lymphoma is an aggressive B-cell, non-Hodgkin lymphoma linked to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Malaria biomarkers related to onset of African Burkitt lymphoma are unknown. We correlated agespecific patterns of 2,602 cases of African Burkitt lymphoma (60% male, mean ± SD age = 7.1 ± 2.9 years) from Uganda, Ghana, and Tanzania with malaria biomarkers published from these countries. Age-specific patterns of this disease and mean multiplicity of P. falciparum malaria parasites, defined as the average number of distinct genotypes per positive blood sample based on the merozoite surface protein-2 assessed by polymerase chain reaction, were correlated and both peaked between 5 and 9 years. This pattern, which was strong and consistent across regions, contrasted parasite prevalence, which peaked at 2 years and decreased slightly, and geometric mean parasite density, which peaked between 2 and 3 years and decreased sharply. Our findings suggest that concurrent infection with multiple malaria genotypes may be related to onset of African Burkitt lymphoma.

Keywords

African Burkitt Lymphoma, Age-Specific Risk, Malaria Biomarkers

Citation

Emmanuel, B., Kawira, E., Ogwang, M. D., Wabinga, H., Magatti, J., Nkrumah, F., ... & Mbulaiteye, S. M. (2011). African Burkitt lymphoma: age-specific risk and correlations with malaria biomarkers. The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene, 84(3), 397. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.2011.10-0450

URI

https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/2973

Collections

Medical and Health Sciences

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