BMC Cancer Case report Hodgkin's disease as unusual presentation of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder after autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation for malignant glioma Alberto Zambelli*1, Daniele Lilleri3, Fausto Baldanti3, Mario Scelsi2, Laura Villani2 and Gian Antonio Da Prada1 Address: 1U.O. di Oncologia Medica I, IRCCS, Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, Pavia, Italy, 2Servizio di Anatomia Patologica, IRCCS, Fondazione Salvatore Maugeri, Pavia, Italy and 3Servizio di Virologia, IRCCS, Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy Email: Alberto Zambelli* - azambelli@fsm.it; Daniele Lilleri - virology@unipv.it; Fausto Baldanti - f.baldanti@smatteo.pv.it; Mario Scelsi - mscelsi@fsm.it; Laura Villani - lvillani@fsm.it; Gian Antonio Da Prada - gdaprada@fsm.it * Corresponding author Published: 23 August 2005 BMC Cancer 2005, 5:109 doi:10.1186/1471-2407-5-109 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/5/109 Received: 01 February 2005 Accepted: 23 August 2005 © 2005 Zambelli et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. BioMed Central Open Access Abstract Background: Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) is a complication of solid organ and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT); following autologous HSCT only rare cases of PTLD have been reported. Here, a case of Hodgkin's disease (HD), as unusual presentation of PTLD after autologous HSCT for malignant glioma is described. Case presentation: 60-years old man affected by cerebral anaplastic astrocytoma underwent subtotal neurosurgical excision and subsequent high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous HSCT. During the post HSCT course, cranial irradiation and corticosteroids were administered as completion of therapeutic program. At day +105 after HSCT, the patient developed HD, nodular sclerosis type, with polymorphic HD- like skin infiltration. Conclusion: The clinical and pathological findings were consistent with the diagnosis of PTLD. Background Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLDs) are severe complications that occur in solid organ and all- ogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HSCT), and their incidence ranges from 1% to 20% [1]. Most PTLDs are classified as B-cell (rarely T-cell) PTLD, often related to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. Some- times, after allogeneic HSCT, non Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) or Hodgkin's disease (HD) have been described as PTLDs [2]. Herein, we report the first case of HD, as unusual presen- tation of PTLD, in a patient undergoing high dose sequen- tial chemotherapy and autologous HSCT for malignant glioma. Page 1 of 5 (page number not for citation purposes)