Secondary acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with 4:11 translocation following treatment for Hodgkin's disease: case report and review of the literature.

It is apparent that treatment of Hodgkin's disease can be complicated by the development of secondary leukaemia. Most such leukaemias are of the non-lymphocytic type. We describe here a patient treated for Hodgkin's disease with chemo- and radiotherapy who developed secondary acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with a non-random chromosomal abnormality t(4;11). The frequency of such cases is assessed by a literature review and evidence for their pluripotent cell origin is discussed.