Prognostic Factors in 454 Cases of Hodgkin's Disease

A retrospective study on the prognostic significance of the initial characteristics of 454 cases of Hodgkin's disease treated between 1922 and 1963 was carried out. Clinical stage, age, sex, histological type, presence of or absence of loss of weight, fever, nigth sweats, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and red cell, grnaulocyte, and lymphocyte blood counts all have significant correlation with survival. Most of these factors are themselves interrelated. Statistical studies were carried out in order to evaluate the independent prognostic significance of each of these factors. Clinical stage, histological type, and presence or absence of systemic symptoms appear to be the most significant. The influence of age and sex is slight when clinical stage and histological type are taken into account. Among the systemic symptoms, loss of weight and fever are the most important. On the laboratory indicators studied, erythrocyte sedimentation rate is the most reliable and has a significant prognostic value, especially for aptients without systemic symptoms. Blood lymphocyte number is correlated with histological type and has a small independent prognostic value. Survival is slightly higher in the group with positive tuberculin skin tests, and the influence of immunoresponsiveness deserves further studies.