2.1 Patients and chemotherapeutic regimens
We searched the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center (SYSUCC) database.
The inclusion criteria were: (1) aged ≤ 18 years; (2) newly diagnosed as
the four main categories of NHL between 2014 and 2020; (3) treated
according to the modified BFM95 protocol. At diagnosis, patients were
staged using the new International Pediatric NHL Staging System
(IPNHLSS).25 Based on the clinicopathological
features, including stage, surgical outcomes before chemotherapy, LDH
(lactate dehydrogenase) levels, pathological subtype and involved
organs, patients with BL/DLBCL and ALCL were stratified into four risk
groups: very low, low, intermediate, and high; patients with LBL were
stratified into low-, intermediate- and high-risk groups according to
their stage, genotype, immunophenotyped, and response to induction
therapy. This study was approved by the SYSUCC Institutional Review
Board and the Research Ethics Committee (IRB: B2020-160-01).