[HIV-associated malignant lymphomas]

In a retrospective analysis of data from 35 cases with malignant lymphoma from a cohort of 2017 HIV-infected patients, the stage of HIV-disease, the CD4 counts at the time of diagnosis, and the use of antineoplastic agents or radiotherapy were correlated with outcome. 6 patients had Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) and 29 non-Hodgkin-lymphoma (NHL). 11 of these lymphomas were classified according to the international working formulation (IWF) as high grade (H, I and J, respectively) and 8 as intermediate grade (G). 10 could not be classified. 22 patients with NHL had stage IV disease according to the Ann Arbor classification, all of whom had manifestations at extranodular sites. 23 patients with NHL were treated with multiagent chemotherapy (18 with m-BACOD or CHOP, 5 patients with various other regimens) and four of them had additional radiotherapy. One patient received radiotherapy only. Two of 24 treated patients showed complete and five a partial response. Median survival of patients without treatment (all of them in poor general condition at the time of diagnosis) was 1.8 months and treated patients survived a median of 5 months. The pretreatment CD4 count was the most important predictor of survival. Patients with prior Aids-diagnosis showed a tendency towards shorter survival. The observed remission rate indicates that HL in HIV-infected patients is better treatable than HIV-associated NHL. However, the overall outcome of HL in our patients was clearly less favorable compared to the course of HL usually seen in patients without HIV infection. The proportion of patients with HL among all patients with malignant lymphoma and HIV disease was unexpectedly larger in our cohort compared to others. Therefore, a possible association of HL and HIV infection, as addressed by several other authors, needs further clarification.