Nine patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin disease or non-Hodgkin lymphoma underwent peripheral stem cell autografting because of a history of marrow involvement with visible lymphoma. Peripheral stem cells were collected during a process of unstimulated leukapheresis. Recovery to a neutrophil count of 0.1 x 10(9)/L was seen at a median of 14 days compared with a median of 18 days for a concurrent series of marrow recipients (P = .12). Recoveries to a neutrophil count of 0.5 x 10(9)/L and a platelet count of 50 x 10(9)/L occurred at medians of 25 days and 28 days, respectively. These figures are not significantly different from those obtained in the marrow recipients. Of the original nine patients, six are surviving free of disease progression or relapse at a median of 240 days posttransplant. Two patients died of transplant-related complications and one relapsed 250 days post-transplant. All surviving patients remain independent of transfusions and six have attained almost complete hematological reconstitution. Although administration of cytotoxic therapy and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) may enhance the yield of early progenitor cells during leukapheresis, unstimulated leukapheresis results in a stem cell product capable of rapidly restoring and sustaining marrow function even after multiple courses of intensive "salvage" therapy. Additional follow-up will be needed to determine whether preliminary survival figures continue to compare favorably with those of patients with similar extramedullary disease states undergoing marrow transplants.