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Histological transformation of non‐hodgkin's lymphoma. A prospective study
Author(s) -
Cullen M. H.,
Lister T. A.,
Brearley R. L.,
Shand W. S.,
Stansfeld A. G.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(197908)44:2<645::aid-cncr2820440234>3.0.co;2-y
Subject(s) - medicine , lymphoma , follicular lymphoma , bone marrow , lymph node , non hodgkin's lymphoma , large cell , pathology , chemotherapy , working formulation , cancer , adenocarcinoma
Forty‐three lymph node biopsies were performed prior to retreatment in 30 unselected patients who had relapsed following chemotherapy for advanced non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma of low grade histological type. Eight patients (27%) showed unequivocal evidence of transformation to a high grade variety of lymphoma. These included 4 out of 21 cases originally having had follicular lymphoma and 4 out of 9 cases having had diffuse lymphoma. In 2 further patients with follicular lymphoma, relapse was diagnosed following examination of the bone marrow and in one the tumor had clearly transformed. In 5 of the transformed lymphomas the cell type was predominantly centroblastic, in 2 immunoblastic and in the remaining 2 centrocytic (anaplastic). Five of the 9 cases developing high grade lymphoma have died after a median interval of 5 months from transformation, whereas only 3 of 23 cases showing no change are dead. In 4 patients low grade lymphoma persisted in the bone marrow at the time of nodal transformation. The clinical circumstances at the time of rebiopsy were unhelpful in predicting transformation. Cancer 44:645‐651, 1979.