Delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity and blood lymphocyte count in advanced Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas

Cell-mediated immune status was assessed in twenty patients of advanced and active lymphoreticular malignancies and twenty control subjects of comparable age and sex distribution by delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity responses to recall and contact antigens and peripheral blood lymphocyte counts. The results show depressed cellular immunity in both Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients. However, the severity of immunological dysfunction as shown by anergy to skin antigens and lymphocytopaenia is remarkably less than what has been mostly reported in the literature.