Granulomatosis after autologous stem cell transplantation in nonHodgkin lymphoma – experience of single institution and a review of literature
Abstract
Background
Sarcoidosis before and after treatment of malignancy is an important differential diagnosis that has to be distinguished from lymphoma.
Patients and methods
Hodgkin lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and aggressive follicular lymphoma are being staged and treatment effect is evaluated with PET-CT. We report three cases of aggressive lymphoma after high dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation with positive lymph nodes on PET-CT, which were histologically diagnosed as sarcoidosis/granulomatosis. In the literature, we found that false positive lymph nodes were more common after allogeneic than after autologous transplantation.
Conclusions
Post-treatment PET-CT positive lymph nodes should always be examined histologically prior to any further treatment decision to avoid unnecessary toxic procedures.
© 2016 Lucka Boltezar, Ivana Zagar, Barbara Jezersek Novakovic, published by Association of Radiology and Oncology
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