Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder in pediatric patients: Survival rates according to primary sites of occurrence and a proposed clinical categorization

Posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) is a devastating complication of organ transplant. In a hospital-based registry, we identified biopsy-proven cases of PTLD among children during a 15-year period and reviewed trends in PTLD rates, the sites of involvement, and the associated survival rates. Cases that were included had at least 1 year of follow-up after the diagnosis of PTLD. We studied 82 patients with first-episode PTLD. Median age at diagnosis was 6.4 years (IQR 3.2-12.3 years). The most frequent PTLD sites were tonsillar/adenoidal (T/A 34%) and gastrointestinal (32%), followed by miscellaneous (defined as less common sites including central nervous system, kidney, lung, and soft tissue 12%), lymph node (11%), and multisite (11%). Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that T/A PTLD was associated with decreased all-cause mortality compared with PTLD at other sites (log-rank 0.004), even after adjustment for histological subtype (P = .047). PTLD-related mortality was also decreased among T/A PTLD (log-rank 0.012) but showed a trend toward significance only after adjustment for histological subtype (P = .09). Among first episodes of PTLD, T/A PTLD was associated with a survival advantage compared with PTLD at other sites, even after adjustment for potential confounders. Based on our observations, we propose a clinical categorization of PTLD according to anatomical site of occurrence.