Purpose of review: Burkitt's lymphoma and its leukemic form (Burkitt cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia) are a highly aggressive disease. We review the classification, clinical presentation, histology, cytogenetics, and the treatment of the disease.
Recent findings: Burkitt's lymphoma might be associated with tumor lysis syndrome which is a potentially fatal complication that occurs spontaneously or upon initiation of chemotherapy. Major improvements were made in the treatment of pediatric and adults population using short-course dose-intensive chemotherapy regimens, usually 1 week after a prephase induction. Addition of Rituximab to chemotherapy has become a standard of care. Relapsed/refractory disease has a very poor prognosis and the benefit from autologous/allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant remains uncertain. Rituximab-based short-course dose-intensive chemotherapy is the standard of care of Burkitt's lymphoma even in the immunodeficiency-related form.
Keywords: Burkitt’s lymphoma; C-MYC; CODOX-M/IVAC; DA-EPOCH-R; Endemic form; GMALL-B-ALL/NHL; HOVON; Immunodeficiency-related; L3ALL; LMB; Sporadic form; T(8;14); Tumor lysis syndrome; hyperCVAD.