[Malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphoma associated with a serum monoclonal immunoglobulin]

Among the 394 non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) observed at our hospital over a thirteen year period, we have found 17 associated monoclonal gammopathies (4.3%). Fourteen gammopathies could be correlated to the lymphoid tumor due to a study of immunological membrane markers and to the comparative evolution of the disease and the monoclonal gammopathy. Two different groups could be distinguished: Six patients out of the fourteen studied (43%) had a gammopathy similar to the surface immunoglobulins of the tumour lymphoid cells. Seven of the seventeen showed, after treatment, a parallel evolution between the tumor and the gammopathy. This originates directly from the tumoral secretion and deserves to be classified among the B lymphoid excretory tumors. Six were IgM and one was IgG. Eight of the fourteen patients studied (57%) did not show any immunological relation between the lymphoma and the monoclonal gammopathy. The evolutions (10 of the 17 patients) of the tumor and of the gammopathy were independent. Among the eleven gammopathies (1 double gammopathy), 5 were IgG, 4 were IgA and 2 were IgM. The incidence of these gammopathies related to the total group tf lymphomas is 2.5%. Given the age of these patients, the association seems fortuitous.