Ann Stem Cell Res Ther | Volume 2, Issue 1 | Case Report | Open Access
Matthew A. Lunning D.O* and Joel D. Armitage
Department of Hematology and Oncology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA
*Correspondance to: Matthew A. Lunning D
Fulltext PDFThe disease we today call Hodgkin lymphoma was named after Thomas Hodgkin, a physician at Guy’s Hospital in London who in the 1830’s did autopsies on 7 patients who died of an illness characterized by progressive lymphadenopathy. His description of these patients was presented at the Royal College of Physicians in 1832, and in 1856. Samuel Wilks referred to a group of similar patients as having “Hodgkin’s disease.” The discovery by Dorothy Reed and Sternberg at the turn of the 20th Century made it possible to recognize this specific type of lymphoma, known as Reed-Sternberg cells. The development of effective radiotherapy techniques and, more recently, effective combinations of chemotherapeutic agents have made Hodgkin lymphoma one of the most curable malignancies. Today more than 80% of all patients with Hodgkin lymphoma are cured and approximately 90% of those who present with early stage disease are cured. Given this excellent treatment outcome, it is important that patients be diagnosed in a timely manner so they can benefit from currently available treatments. Hodgkin lymphoma usually presents with lymphadenopathy in the neck, mediastinum, or axilla and is relatively easily diagnosed upon excisional biopsy with modern techniques. However, this is an illness that can present with obscure symptoms that can lead to great delay in diagnosis. The unusual presentations of Hodgkin Lymphoma are not covered well in literature, particularly in literature that is oriented to primary care providers; it should be noted there has been literature oriented to oncologists discussing unusual presentations of Hodgkin Lymphoma. If primary care providers recognize these unusual presentations as possibly representing Hodgkin lymphoma, patients could be treated earlier, often with less extensive disease, and be spared prolonged and unpleasant periods of suffering from symptoms. This manuscript will present several illustrative cases of characteristic, but unusual, presentations of Hodgkin lymphoma.
Matthew A. Lunning DO, Armitage JD. Confusing Presentations of Hodgkin Lymphoma. Ann Stem Cell Res Ther. 2018; 2(1): 1008.