Clinical course after mantle treatment of non-laparotomized patients with Hodgkin's disease

Forty-two patients with Hodgkin's disease were staged without laparotomy and considered to have only supradiaphragmatic disease. They were treated with the mantle technique and followed up for at least 3 years. Abdominal extension was later found in 31 per cent. It is concluded that occult abdominal disease usually in course of time will give symptoms.