Does lymphoma ‘cure’ rheumatoid arthritis?
Prolonged remission in established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is extremely rare. During a six year follow up of 458 patients Wolfe and Hawley 1 observed two prolonged remissions of more than 48 months, and concluded that ‘once established, RA tends to remain, interrupted briefly in a small minority of patients by remission of disease.’ However prolonged remissions or cures have been described as secondary to Cushing’s disease 2 and human immunodeficiency virus infection.
