Hodgkin's disease after treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

A review of the clinical data base of the Hematology/Lymphoma Service at Memorial Hospital was carried out to determine the incidence of Hodgkin's disease (HD) after treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Five patients (four men, one woman) developed HD after treatment for NHL, with an interval ranging from 60 months to 23 years (median, 7.6 years). All but one had no evidence of NHL, when HD was diagnosed. Three patients in whom the diagnosis of HD was made soon after or concomitantly with the diagnosis of NHL also are reported. Supervening HD was more frequently of nodular sclerosis type. The patients were older (median, 63 years) than patients with HD as the first cancer (median, 32 years). The occurrence of HD after NHL has been observed so infrequently that it is unlikely that it may be related to the treatment of the first neoplasia.