Angio-immunoblastic lymphadenopathy.

Two patients presented with a short history of constitutional symptoms including fatigue, weight loss, night sweats and pruritus. Both had hepatosplenomegaly and tender lymphadenopathy, and in each case lymph node biopsy revealed prominent vascularization of the interfollicular zones and the presence of an amorphous eosinophilic fibrillar material, together with many epithelioid histiocytes, immunoblasts and plasma cells. In other areas of the same lymph nodes unequivocal lymphocytic lymphoma was present. The first patient was treated with levamisole, to which there was dramatic response. She subsequently died of septicaemia, and at autopsy was shown to be free of lymphoma. The second patient responded completely to the epipodophyllotoxin VP16-213 and is back at work as a heavy labourer without any residual disease. These 2 cases illustrate that complete clinical remission can be obtained in patients with this disease even after lymphomatous transformation has occurred. Levamisole has the additional attraction of being less immunosuppressive in patients whose immune response is already impaired.