the purpose of this study is to compare the clinical and laboratory findings at presentation of 38 intravenous drug abusers with pathologically documented persistent generalized lymphadenopathy and 50 patients with biopsy proven malignant lymphoma ( 30 hodgkin diseases , 20 non-hodgkin 's lymphomas ) not related to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , all aged 40 years or less and consecutively seen and evaluated with a similar clinicopathological approach since may 1984 in a single institution , centro di riferimento oncologico , aviano , italy .
C0024299
malignant lymphoma
C0024305
non-hodgkin 's lymphomas