Is there a clue regarding the cause of Hodgkin disease?
GROUND. The occurrence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated Hodgkin disease (HD) offers a unique opportunity to study the cause of HD and compare HIV-HD with the well-characterized HIV-non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). METHODS. Eight patients with HIV-HD and 17 with HIV-NHL were treated. RESULTS. The complete remission (CR) rate in HIV-HD was 100% with mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone or doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (median survival, > 38.0 months). HIV-NHL patients were treated with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CR, 80%; median survival, 13.0 +/- 1.3 months). Durable CR was achieved with one to six cycles of chemotherapy (median, 4). There were no late relapses. The difference between the survival rate associated with chemotherapy-treated HIV-HD and chemotherapy-treated HIV-NHL approached statistical significance (P = 0.06). Analysis indicated that all patients with HIV-HD (n = 8) may have acquired H
