title: 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.
  
  
  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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Oncology, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Lucka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Boltezar
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zagar
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Oncology, Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Barbara Jezersek
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Novakovic
keywords: PET-CT; differential diagnosis; granulomatosis; nonHodgkin lymphoma; tissue biopsy