[Causes of death in cases of lymphoma, myeloma and Hodgkin disease. Study of 218 cases].

An autopsy study of 218 cases of lymphoproliferative disease was performed to establish the cause of death. It covered 144 cases of malignant nonHodgkin's lymphoma, 23 cases of Hodgkin's disease and 51 cases of myeloma. It was established that infection is by far the most frequent cause (34% of cases) followed by tumor invasion (11.5% of cases), hemorrhage (9% of cases) and other pathologies linked to the basic process (10% of cases). The proportion of patients who die from intercurrent illness is still considerable (62 cases, 28%). Infection is most often pulmonary or systemic; gram-negative bacteria play a predominant role. Toxicity of treatment is obvious in causing neutropenia and thrombocytopenia among other side effects with fatal consequences.