Highly elevated serum CA 125 in a lady with ascites and retroperitoneal mass--a diagnostic dilemma.

BACKGROUND: Cancer antigen 125 (CA 125), a widely used tumor marker for monitoring epithelial ovarian cancer, is also found to be raised in non-gynecological tumors and non malignant disease involving peritoneum. We report a case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who presented with peritoneal and pleural effusions with a very high level of serum CA 125. CASE: Fifty four years female presented with gross ascitis, bilateral moderate pleural effusions, right retroperitoneal mass and a very high serum CA 125 level (4462.60 u/ml). She was initially evaluated to rule out ovarian malignancy but her biopsy from retroperitoneal mass came out to be diffuse large B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. CONCLUSION: In a female patient with ascitis with high serum CA 125 level, a differential diagnosis of lymphoma should not be overlooked unless cytology comes positive for epithelial carcinoma cells.

Pure red cell aplasia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a case report and brief literature review.

Pure red cell aplasia associated with lymphoproliferative malignancies other than thymoma is an uncommon occurrence. In the present paper we report a rare case of nodular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with pure red cell aplasia who presented with symptoms related to anemia rather than the lymphoma and responded well to combination chemotherapy.

Primary lymphoma of breast--report of six cases and review of literature.

Six patients of primary lymphoma of breast are presented. All our patients were female with median age of 46 years. Combination chemotherapy was the mainstay of treatment in all the patients. Five patients achieved complete remission of which two relapsed, one had a distant relapse and the other was local. Patient with distant relapse expired after a follow-up of 224 months whereas the one with local recurrence was well controlled with radiotherapy only. The role of combination chemotherapy to decrease the distant relapse and thereby mortality is discussed.

Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in untreated acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Mixed opportunistic infection with Pneumocystis carinii and Candida prior to cytotoxic therapy in a young male diagnosed as having acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia resulted in early catastrophe. The role of awareness of this complication and its prompt management is discussed.