Gynecomastia After Chemotherapy for Lymphoma

Although development of gynecomastia in a patient with cancer may indicate persistence or regrowth of a tumor, we studied three patients with lymphoma in whom development of gynecomastia during or after chemotherapy did not portend a poor outcome. In all patients, serum testosterone levels were normal, serum luteinizing hormone (LH) levels were high-normal or elevated, and serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels were clearly elevated. The serum estradiol level of one patient was elevated at the onset of gynecomastia, but it fell to normal as the gynecomastia resolved spontaneously over a three-month period during which the patient received no chemotherapy. In a second patient, gynecomastia resolved over a period of eight months while the patient continued on maintenance chemotherapy, and he remains clinically well in remission 2 1/2 years after onset of gynecomastia. In the third patient, gynecomastia developed while the patient was in complete remission and off of all therapy, and it remained unchanged for the duration of a 2 1/2-year remission without therapy. Gynecomastia after chemotherapy for lymphoma is not an ominous prognostic sign and does not necessarily indicate the need for alteration of the treatment regimen.

(Arch Intern Med 139:1048-1049, 1979)