Clonal identification of Burkitt's lymphoma arising from lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease

The occurrence of large cell lymphomas subsequent to, or concurrent with, lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin's disease (LPHD) is a well-documented phenomenon. We present a case of Burkitt's lymphoma of the bladder, occurring after the successful treatment of LPHD of a cervical lymph node. To evaluate the clonal relationship of the two tumours, we amplified the complementarity-determining-region 3 of two samples from paraffin-embedded slides, using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The sequences of the PCR products showed 96% homology to each other. These results indicate that the malignant clone of Burkitt's lymphoma arose from the corresponding LPHD.