Monoclonal Macroglobulinemia in Malignant Lymphoma

Serum protein electrophoresis was performed in 63% of 1,069 consecutive patients with lymphoma. No monoclonal peaks of IgM specificity were found in sera from 345 patients with nodular lymphoma or Hodgkin's disease. Of the remaining 333 patients with diffuse lymphoma, 1.5% had an IgG peak, suggesting a coincidental relationship of IgG peaks to lymphoma. IgM peaks occurred in 3.6% of patients with diffuse lymphoma, a prevalence about 60 times more frequent than that in normal subjects. Such peaks were more frequent in older patients, suggesting an increased incidence of lymphomas producing monoclonal macroglobulins with advancing age. There was a close correlation between lymphoma mass and the level of the IgM peak in individual patients. Results supported the value of identifying monoclonal components in all patients with lymphoma, particularly those with diffuse lymphocytic infiltration.