Syncytial variant of nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease. A new clinicopathologic entity.

The clinicopathologic and histopathologic features of an unusual morphologic variant of nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's Disease (HD) termed the syncytial variant has been reported recently. We report eight new cases with this unique morphology, identified by reviewing the histopathology of 58 patients with nodular sclerosing HD treated in our institute between 1982 and 1988. The clinicopathologic and histopathologic data of these cases are reported and we emphasize this new entity and the difficulties encountered in the morphologic diagnosis. All of the eight patients had a difficult initial clinical course, and were in a clinically advanced stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis. We cite a statistical comparison of the clinical features of the different forms of nodular sclerosing HD.