Hiv‐associated Hodgkin disease: A clinical study of 18 cases and review of the literature

Intermediate‐ and high‐grade B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) occurring in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐infected patient is considered diagnostic of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Other neoplasms (both hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic) have also been reported in patients with HIV infection, although none except Kaposi sarcoma carries the same diagnosis of AIDS as B‐cell NHL in an HIV‐infected host. There have been previous reports in the literature of Hodgkin disease (HD) in HIV‐infected patients. We describe our clinical and pathological experience with HD from 1984–1989, in 18 patients with documented HIV infection and also review the literature on HD in HIV‐infected patients. Almost all patients described herein presented with advanced disease and mixed cellularity histology and did very poorly despite some good initial responses to therapy. By statistical analysis, we found that the patients with HIV‐associated HD had a strong tendency to be outside the age range seen in non‐HIV‐associated HD (P <0.005). We also discuss the possible relationship between HIV and HD and consider whether HIV‐associated HD, like B‐cell NHL, is a manifestation of AIDS.