SPONTANEOUS COMPLETE REGRESSION OF HIGH-GRADE NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMA -MORPHOLOGIC, IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL, AND GENE AMPLIFICATION ANALYSES

Background. Spontaneous regression of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, occasion ally reported in low grade groups, is a rare phenomenon in high grade groups. Clonal proliferation has not been confirmed in the majority of reported cases. In this woman, age 58 years, who had been diagnosed a s having high grade immunoblastic lymphoma after excision of a single cervical lymph node, the remaining bilateral cervical, inguinal, and a xillary adenopathy regressed completely without any cytotoxic treatmen ts 22 days after biopsy. At the time of this writing, the patient has been free of disease for 24 months. Methods. Clonality of the lymphopr oliferation in the case was examined by immunohistochemistry and polym erase chain reaction (PCR) amplification using paraffin embedded biops y material. possible implications of Epstein-Barr virus in the pathoge nesis of this process was examined also by PCR amplification and in si tu hybridization. Results. The proliferating lymphoid cells showed res tricted expression of immunoglobulin (Ig) light chain and amplificatio n of clonally rearranged V-D-J regions of Ig heavy chain gene. Epstein -Barr virus did not appear to be involved in the process. Conclusion. The present study shows that spontaneous complete regression of clonal lymphoproliferation that is morphologically a high grade lymphoma can occur.