Plasma-Cell Dyscrasia after Alkylating-Agent Therapy for Hodgkin's Disease

To the Editor: Second neoplasms induced by chemotherapy with alkylating agents are being seen with increasing frequency, especially in patients who have been successfully treated for Hodgkin's disease. Most notable has been the marked increase in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia over the expected incidence in this group.^{1 2 3 4} We report here the case of a patient, successfully treated with alkylating agents for Hodgkin's disease, who had a clonal malignant process of plasmacytic origin. A white woman first had right cervical lymphadenopathy in November 1971 at the age of 19. A lymph-node biopsy, a standard radiologic evaluation, and a bone-marrow biopsy disclosed that.