Second Primary Malignancies in Lymphoma Patients

We evaluated the occurrence and the type of second malignanciesamong 74 patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) and 407 patientswith non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) who were treated at the NationalCancer Center Hospital for more than one year. Fifteen patients developed a second malignancy. In 10 of thesepatients the second cancer was gastric cancer, but no casesof acute nonlymphocytic leukemia were encountered. The observed number of second cancers in females among the HDpatients was significantly (p < 0.005) greater than the expectedincidence based upon the number of age-adjusted person-yearsboth for all cancers and for stomach cancer. However, no significantdifferences between males and females in the NHL patients werefound. Furthermore, no significant differences were seen inany of the groups between the observed and expected numbersof second malignancies according to the treatment.