Lymphoma of the Burkitt type in Singapore

Fourteen cases of lymphoma of the Burkitt type were found in a retrospective review of histopathological material in Singapore over a 15‐year period (1950–1964). The cases ranged from 4–14 years of age; there were 13 Chinese and 1 Indian and 12 male and 2 female patients in this series. The age‐specific incidence rates were 0.05 per 100,000 children per annum for the 0–4 year age group, 0.18 for the 5–9 year age group and 0.29 for the 10–14 year age group; there were no cases in the 15–19 year age group. The incidence rates for the 0–14 year age group were 0.25 per 100,000 children per annum for males, 0.04 for females and 0.15 for both sexes. The neoplasm comprised 3.6% of all histologically diagnosed cancers in the 0–14 year age group. The relative rarity of lymphoma of the Burkitt type in Singapore is of interest as the climatic conditions here conform to the observed requirements for endemicity of the disease in Africa.