Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hematol. Feb 6, 2016; 5(1): 37-50
Published online Feb 6, 2016. doi: 10.5315/wjh.v5.i1.37
Retrospective study of a cohort of adult patients with hematological malignancies in a tropical area
Jean-Pierre Droz, Laure Bianco, Béatrice Cenciu, Maïa Forgues, Florin Santa, Jérome Fayette, Pierre Couppié
Jean-Pierre Droz, Cancer and Environment Research Unit, Centre Léon-Bérard, 69008 Lyon, France
Jean-Pierre Droz, Oncoguyane Cancer Network, Cayenne 97300, French Guiana
Jean-Pierre Droz, Jérome Fayette, Department of Medical Oncology, Claude-Bernard-Lyon1 University, 69008 Lyon, France
Jean-Pierre Droz, Jérome Fayette, Department of Medical Oncology, Centre Léon-Bérard, 69008 Lyon, France
Laure Bianco, Béatrice Cenciu, Maïa Forgues, Florin Santa, Jérome Fayette, Pierre Couppié, Department of Amazonian Health, Hospital of Cayenne, Cayenne 97300, French Guiana
Pierre Couppié, French West-Indies and Guiana University, Cayenne site, Cayenne 97300, French Guiana
Author contributions: Droz JP and Bianco L contributed equally to this work; Droz JP, Bianco L and Couppié P designed the study; Droz JP, Cenciu B, Forgues M, Santa F and Fayette J have managed the patients and collected data; Droz JP and Bianco L have analyzed the data; Droz JP and Bianco L have written the manuscript; Cenciu B, Forgues M, Santa F, Fayette J and Couppié P have provided revision of the article for important intellectual content; Droz JP, Bianco L, Cenciu B, Forgues M, Santa F, Fayette J and Couppié P have given final approval of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The entire 594 patient study was the subject of a thesis for an MD degree (Bianco L), and it was reviewed and approved by the University of French Guiana and West Indies Medical School Institutional Review Board.”
Informed consent statement: We did not obtain individual informed consent; we used current hospital medical files; all the data presented were rendered anonymous and the chance of patient identification was extremely low.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Jean-Pierre Droz, MD, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Department of Medical Oncology, Centre Léon-Bérard, 28 Prom. Léa et Napoléon Bullukian, 69008 Lyon, France. jpdroz@orange.fr
Telephone: +33-643-178411
Received: July 31, 2015
Peer-review started: August 1, 2015
First decision: November 6, 2015
Revised: December 13, 2015
Accepted: January 5, 2016
Article in press: January 7, 2016
Published online: February 6, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: Management of hematological malignancies is guided by very specialized and up to date guidelines that are based on the biology of the diseases. An important proportion of these diseases are related to viral infections, and this is particularly so in tropical areas. Based on a narrative review of 87 cases of patients managed in French Guiana, we provide an overview of the most important characteristics of these hematological diseases (e.g., human immunodeficiency virus and human T-lymphotropic virus 1 related diseases), the limitations regarding management (e.g., board-certified specialists, pathology labs, imaging techniques, radiotherapy), and possible solutions to improve quality (e.g., centers of excellence, training programs in pathology). These observations may be more broadly relevant in the setting of countries with low and intermediate household incomes.