Systemic Hodgkin’s lymphoma in a patient with Sézary syndrome

We report a case of a 71-year-old male with Sezary syndrome diagnosed in 1996 who subsequently developed systemic Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His only past treatment was bath psoralen plus ultraviolet A. He has since been treated with multiagent chemotherapy (ChlVPP/PABLOE) which induced a remission in his Hodgkin’s disease. Eighteen months later he remains in remission from Hodgkin’s disease but the Sezary syndrome remains active. He has also developed a squamous cell carcinoma on the upper lip. Sezary syndrome is a primary cutaneous T-cell lymphoma characterized by a malignant proliferation of CD4-positive cells in the skin and peripheral circulation. The CD4 count may be markedly elevated but this results from expansion of a neoplastic T-cell clone and there is a relative lymphopenia of normal T cells leading to a degree of immunoparesis. Immunosuppression is known to be associated with an increased rate of malignancies and this may account for the occurrence of Hodgkin’s disease and squamous cell carcinoma in this patient with Sezary syndrome.