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Updated: Jan 2, 2026
Flow-sorting and Exome Sequencing of the Reed-Sternberg Cells of Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma
Published on: June 10, 2017
Etiological Observations in 36 Patients With Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Walter Weber1, Samuel S Weber2
1Clinical Cancer Etiology Unit, Basel, Switzerland.
Background/Aim:
Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) accounts for 1% of cancers and is of largely unknown pathogenesis. This study intended to find clues about potential causes (etiology) of HL through observations on patients and their families.
Patients And Methods:
In 37 years of a medical oncology practice in Basel, Switzerland, 36 out of 2201 patients (1.6%) had HL. Etiological information has been obtained from the patients with the help of a German translation of the NCI Medical History Questionnaire for Cancer Etiology, and through the study of their medical charts.
Results:
Findings of etiological interest were observed in the medical history of 26 out of the 36 patients with HL; these findings were grouped as follows: benign tumors (25%), carcinogenic exposures (19%), immunologic disorders (19%), secondary malignancies (14%), infections (11%), congenital disorders (8%) and tonsillectomies (6%). Twenty-two out of 36 patients had one or more relatives with cancer.
Conclusion:
Personal and family history of patients with HL is a readily available useful tool for etiology research. The fact that HL is frequently associated with other cancers in patients and their relatives points to causal genetic factors.
