Lymphocyte transformation changes during the clinical course of Hodgkin's disease

✍ Scribed by S. M. Jackson; J. V. Garrett; A. W. Craig

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1970
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 654 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(197004)25:4<843::aid-cncr2820250413>3.0.co;2-1

✦ Synopsis

Forty-one patients with Hodgkin's disease have been investigated, mostly at their clinical presentation and, on frequent occasions, throughout the clinical course of their disease. A quantitative radioisotopic investigation has been made of the response of the patients' peripheral blood lymphocytes to PHA stimulation. It has been shown that lymphocyte response (lymphocyte transformation) is related to the severity of the disease; at presentation, the majority of patients with early Hodgkin's disease have a normal response and those with systemic symptoms a significantly reduced response. Throughout the course of the disease, the lymphocyte response is associated with the severity of the disease and may show improvement in periods of clinical remission arising from treatment.

ATIENTS WITH HODGKIN'S DISEASE ARE

P known to display discrepancies in the immune system under certain circumstances.

In general, humoral antibody formation is well preserved, although it may fail in the advanced stage of the disease and may be related to the development of hypogammaglobulinemia,Z but this feature is a rare complication.l* Defects of tolerance, or autoimmune disorders, particularly diffuse connective tissue disease and hemolytic anemia, are well-known clinical complications of malignant lymphomas.** Cell-mediated immune processes, related to the delayed hypersensitivity type of reaction governed by the "thymus dependent" lymphatic system, are those most commonly affected. That patients with Hodgkin's disease reject skin grafts less