Classical hodgkin lymphoma and spontaneous regression

摘要

Mohsen and colleagues describe an interesting case of an 86-year-old woman with biopsyproven classical Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), mixed cellularity type, who initially presented with diffuse myalgia, pancytopenia, lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, bilateral pleural effusions, and pulmonary nodules. She experienced near-complete regression of lymphoma shortly after diagnosis, before any tumor-specific therapy could be initiated. The authors hypothesize that the constitutional symptoms reported by the patient may reflect an underlying immunologic milieu contributing to this remission. Thorough testing was performed as part of the rheumatologic workup in order to rule out a concurrent underlying autoimmune disease due to the association between immunologic dysfunction and lymphomagenesis, as explained below.