The relationship between infliximab treatment and lymphoma in Crohn's disease

The relationship between chronic inflammatory conditions and malignancy is complex. We describe the clinical course of 2 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) in whom lymphoma was diagnosed after treatment with infliximab. The f irst patient was a 61-year-old man with a 30-year history of fistulizing CD in whom B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was diagnosed 9 months after treatme nt with infliximab. The second is a 29-year-old man with CD in whom nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's lymphoma was diagnosed 3 weeks after infusion with in fliximab. The lymphoma presented with pleural effusions, mediastinal and ce rvical adenopathy, and no gastrointestinal lesion. We describe the implicat ions of these cases for the use of immunomodulatory therapy in CD and the q uestionable association between CD and lymphoma.