Eight consecutive patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or Hodgkin's disease received conditioning therapy with BCNU, etoposide, cytosine arabinoside and melphalan (BEAM) followed by autologous blood stem cell transplantation (ABSCT). Cyclosporine was administered from day +1 until day +28 post-ABSCT to induce autologous graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) for a possible antitumor effect. Three patients developed histologically documented grade II GVHD between 22-40 days post-transplant. GVHD resolved with local hydrocortisone 1% application in one patient and after a short course of steroid in the remaining two patients. Further studies are required to document any beneficial antitumor effect of such therapy following ABSCT.