Anaplastic large cell lymphoma, ALK-positive in very young children: A long-term follow-up of two cases and a review of the literature

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma, ALK-positive is a mature T-cell neoplasm that accounts for 10- 20% of paediatric non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Its frequency in infants and very young children is exceedingly rare and was rarely documented in the literature. The disease prognosis in this agegroup is unknown. We report two male patients who were diagnosed with ALCL-ALK(+) at the ages of 12 and 14 months, both presented with fever and leukemoid reaction, one was in stage I and the other in stage IV diseases. They were treated with APO-based chemotherapy and remained in complete remission for more than 7 years. To our knowledge, this is the first report that describes the long-term survival of ALCL-ALK(+) at very young age.