Acute T-cell leukemia/lymphoma mimicking Hodgkin's disease with secondary HTLV I seroconversion.

The authors observed a pleiomorphic lymphoma mimicking Hodgkin's lymphoma in a French Guyana black woman lacking antibodies for human T-cell lymphoma/leukemia virus type I (HTLV I). After two courses of chemotherapy with either mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (MOPP) or doxorubicin, bleomycin, vincaleukoblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD), a typical acute T-cell leukemia/lymphoma developed with HTLV I seroconversion. Specific HTLV I DNA sequences were detected using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on a lymph node biopsy obtained before chemotherapy. The mechanisms of the seroconversion are discussed.