Hodgkin's disease followed by lymphomatoid papulosis. Immunophenotypic evidence for a close relationship between lymphomatoid papulosis and Hodgkin's disease.

The clinical association of lymphomatoid papulosis and Hodgkin's disease and the striking morphologic similarity of atypical cells in lymphomatoid papulosis to Reed-Sternberg cells in Hodgkin's disease suggest that lymphomatoid papulosis and Hodgkin's disease are related. To test this possibility we studied the antigenic profile of Reed-Sternberg cells in the lymph nodes and of atypical cells in cutaneous lesions of lymphomatoid papulosis in two patients with Hodgkin's disease and lymphomatoid papulosis. In paraffin sections both cell types expressed CD30, CD45 T cell-restricted antigens, and occasionally CD15 antigens. They were negative for CD45 B cell-restricted antigens and for lysozyme. In cutaneous lymphomatoid papulosis lesions a similar immunologic profile of the atypical cells was found; that is, they were positive for CD30, CD2, CD3, and CD25 but negative for B cell and macrophage antigens. The similarity of the immunophenotype of Reed-Sternberg cells in lymph nodes affected by Hodgkin's disease and the immunophenotype of atypical cells of lymphomatoid papulosis lesions in the same patients suggests that the malignant cells in both conditions are derived from activated T cells and that they are closely related if not identical.