The pathologic and clinical heterogeneity of lymphocyte-depleted Hodgkin's disease

Abstract

Patients with Hodgkin's disease of the lymphocyte-depleted subtype (LDHD) have been said to have a poor prognosis. However, reports of this subtype are complicated by the fact that the histologic diagnosis of LDHD is often not straightforward, and its distinction from aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) can be difficult. We have reviewed our patients with LDHD at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in light of an additional decade of experience with neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions mimicking Hodgkin's disease. Of 198 patients who received MOPP (mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone) treatment at the NCI for Hodgkin's disease between 1964 and 1976, 43 (22%) were originally classified as LDHD. The initial diagnostic biopsies from 39 of these patients were reviewed and revealed ten with NHL, nine with LDHD, and 13 with nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's disease of the lymphocyte-depleted subtype (NSLD). The other seven patients had Hodgkin's disease without a lymphocyte-depleted component. The NHL patients were further subclassified as diffuse, large-cell (two cases) and large-cell, immunoblastic (eight cases). The pathologic review was done without knowledge of clinical features which were examined after review in the three major subgroups. Of ten patients with NHL, only three had a complete remission (CR), and median survival was 7 months. Nine of the NHL patients presented with features that are unusual for patients with Hodgkin's disease, such as bulky abdominal disease, epitrochlear lymphade-nopathy, or hypercalcemia. CRs were attained by 67% and 85% of patients in the LDHD and NSLD groups, respectively: median survival had not been reached in either group with a median of 14 years of follow-up. Lymphocyte-depleted Hodgkin's disease, adequately treated, is in our limited group of patients no worse than other histopathologic subtypes of Hodgkin's disease. The erroneous inclusion of patients with high-grade NHLs into this subtype of Hodgkin's disease may be one reason for earlier literature reports of its more aggressive nature. The diagnosis of LDHD should be made cautiously, particularly in patients with clinical features that are unusual for Hodgkin's disease at presentation.