Hodgkin's Disease in Turkish Children: A Clinical and Histopathologic Analysis

Fifty-one cases of Hodgkin's disease in Turkish children under 15 years of age were clinically analyzed, and 40 cases were evaluated histopathologically according to the Rye Conference classification. Complete clinical, laboratory, and radiologic findings for each patient were examined. Most patients were of low socioeconomic class, and nearly all were Caucasian. The most common presenting clinical sign was cervical lymph node enlargement; hepatosplenomegaly was noted in 18 patients. Nearly three times as many males as females were found among the patients whose diseases were histologically analyzed, and most of the children with Hodgkin's disease were in the first decade of life. Classification of the cases revealed a predominance (67.5%) of the mixed cellularity (MC) type. Of 40 patients analyzed, 34 had disease in clinical stage IV, mostly of the MC type. The data indicated a correlation of the high incidence of the MC type of Hodgkin's disease with the socioeconomic and environmental conditions in Turkey.