Posttransplantation Hodgkin's disease: Clinicopathologic study of three cases.

As a frequent complication of immunosuppression, lymphoproliferative disorders affect approximately 2% of allorgan transplant recipients. Most of them are EBV-associated-B-cell-lymphoproliferations. Other types of non Hodgkin's lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease, as observed in general population, have only rarely been reported ill this group of patients. We report three cases of Hodgkin's disease, which were diagnosed in two renal transplant recipients and one heart transplant patient. They were associated, with Epstein-Barr virus, as demonstrated by immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. EBV is frequently associated with Hodgkin's disease in the general population, and always implicated in AIDS-related Hodgkin's disease. However in transplant patients the rarity of Hodgkin's disease argues against a direct oncogenic role of this virus.