The malignancy-sarcoidosis syndrome

Abstract

In a retrospective review of six patients with malignancy preceding sarcoidosis, we found four cases of malignant lymphoproliferative disease (LD) and one case each of ovarian cancer and breast cancer. The median interval from onset or relapse of malignancy to sarcoidosis was nine months. Of the four patients with LD, sarcoidosis appeared within six months of termination of chemotherapy for three of the patients and 15 months after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for the fourth patient. At the time of diagnosis of sarcoidosis, there was no clinical or pathologic evidence of malignancy in the chest. We conclude that in contradistinction to the previously described syndrome of sarcoidosis preceding LD, there exists a syndrome of sarcoidosis following malignancy with or without chemotherapy.