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A more favourable clinical course of lymphoma relapsing after high-dose therapy: evidence of tumour heterogeneity?

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Abstract

Patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) or large cell lymphomas who relapse after conventional chemotherapy have a poor prognosis without high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation (HDCT). Patients who relapse after HDCT have an extremely poor outcome. In the present study we describe four patients with relapsed HD (n=1) and large cell lymphomas (n=3) after HDCT. All had an aggressive clinical course before HDT. At relapse, however, they all have had prolonged remissions and/or spontaneous regressions on mild or no treatment. Possible explanations could be selection of less malignant clones or a lymphoma controlled by the immune system. The mechanisms are, however, unknown but warrant further studies of the molecular biology in these and similar cases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Oncology, Radiology and Clinical Immunology, Uppsala University, Akademiska sjukhuset, S-751 85, Uppsala, Sweden

    G Enblad, M Bengtsson & H Hagberg

  2. Department of Haematology, Uppsala University, Akademiska sjukhuset, S-751 85, Uppsala, Sweden

    K Carlson

Authors
  1. G Enblad
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  2. K Carlson
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  3. M Bengtsson
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  4. H Hagberg
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Correspondence to G Enblad.

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Enblad, G., Carlson, K., Bengtsson, M. et al. A more favourable clinical course of lymphoma relapsing after high-dose therapy: evidence of tumour heterogeneity?. Med Oncol 17, 229–232 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02780534

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02780534

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