Prospective studies on Hodgkin's disease in Ibadan--a preliminary report

A preliminary report of a prospective study of Hodgkin's disease (HD) is provided, based on clinical and laboratory findings on 21 patients seen between July 1978 and December 1979 at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. Staging procedure was minimized to relatively simple surgical procedures like lymphangiography and percutaneous biopsy. Staging laparotomy was performed only in one case. Female patients were significantly older than males (P less than 0.05). Patients with lymphadenopathy were significantly older than those without (P less than 0.05), while those with systemic symptoms were significantly younger than those without. Eighteen (86%) of the patients presented with stage IV disease while 12 (57%) had the unfavourable histologic "mixed cellularity' or "lymphocyte depleted' variants. Systemic symptoms were present in 16 (76%) of patients. Fifty-three % of adequately treated patients showed poor response to chemotherapy. The prognosis of HD in Ibadan is on the whole unfavourable. A delineation of the prognostic factors is indicated.