Primary Refractory Discordant Diffuse Large B-Cell and Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma

Discordant lymphomas are defined as two or more distinct pathological lymphomas occurring in the same patient. Due to the rarity of discordant lymphomas, which is due in large part to the difficulty in establishing the diagnosis, the literature is limited to small case series and case reports. Consequently, guidelines on therapeutic strategies are lacking. This article presented a case of primary refractory discordant large B-cell lymphoma and classic Hodgkin lymphoma in a young man based on cervical node and mediastinal mass biopsy, respectively. This case illustrates the difficulty in establishing the diagnosis, which ultimately warranted a high index of clinical suspicion and pursuit of multiple sequential biopsies, as well as a novel treatment strategy using an immune checkpoint inhibitor.