Secondary polycythaemia associated with large cell lymphoma

Polycythemia, increased erythropoietin levels in a patient with renal lymphoma

A young male presented to our clinic with 3 months history of shortness of breathness and progressive distension of abdomen. On investigations, patient had renal failure, polycythemia and nephromegaly. A diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was made on renal and lymph node biopsy. Serum erythropoietin concentrations were physiologically inappropriate. – Erythropoietin immunohistochemistry on renal tissue samples demonstrated positive staining for tumor cells. This patient was managed as a case of infiltrative lymphoproliferative disorder with kidney involvement having polycythemia owing to paraneoplastic Erythropoietin production and possibly local hypoxia produced by tumor cells. With maximum efforts, we could not find such an association in the literature.