Recurrent Hodgkin's disease after bone marrow transplantation.

Histologic features of recurrent Hodgkin's disease (HD) after conventional therapy are well known, but few studies describe HD after bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Histologic material from 63 patients who underwent BMT performed to treat recurrent nodular sclerosing HD (NSHD) between 1985 and 1994 was examined; 13 of the 63 patients had histologically proved recurrent disease after BMT. Histologic material and clinical findings from the original diagnostic biopsy specimen and pre-BMT and post-BMT specimens were available from our study population of eight patients (five male, three female; age range, 16 to 38 years; median age, 27.5 years). Seven patients had recurrent NSHD after BMT; sites of recurrence included lymph nodes only (four patients), and lymph nodes and lung, lung and liver, and lung only (one patient each). In one patient, a high-grade non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma developed in the large intestine 5 years after BMT. In another, disease progressed from grade 1 in the original biopsy specimen to grade 2 in both the pre-BMT and post-BMT recurrent HD biopsy specimens. Post-BMT biopsy specimens of recurrent HD with lung involvement revealed a substantial increase in sclerosis and fibroblastic features. Paraffin immunoperoxidase studies in seven patients demonstrated substantial change in phenotype of Reed-Stemberg cell variants in only one post-BMT recurrent HD specimen, which showed a +2 reaction with CD30 (Ki-1). No substantial differences in the reactive component were noted between the original biopsy specimen and pre-BMT and post-BMT specimens of recurrent disease. In summary, histologic findings of post-BMT recurrent NSHD do not differ significantly from those of the original diagnostic biopsy or pre-BMT recurrent HD specimens. The lung is the most common site of extranodal post-BMT recurrence. In one patient, high-grade non-Hodgkin's B-cell lymphoma developed after BMT performed to treat recurrent HD.