What Is Burkitts Lymphoma and When Is It Endemic?
To the Editor: Denis Burkitt first published an account of the tumor that bears his name in 1958.1 In the following years, there was considerable confusion concerning the nature of the tumor, its relationship to other lymphomas, and whether it occurred outside Africa. To clarify this matter, the World Health Organization, in collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer, convened a meeting of 18 hematopathologists in Washington in October 1967. Histological and cytological preparations from 55 selected cases were circulated to the participants before the meeting. The conclusions of the majority of the participants were that “the eponym Burkitt’s tumour is best applied to a malignant neoplasm of the haemopoietic system composed of a predominant and characteristic cell type,” and that “Burkitt’s tumour, as defined above, is not limited to Africa and occurs in many parts of the world.”2 Two members of the group (Dr Iris Hamlin and Dr Philip Lieberman) dissented from t
