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Hodgkin's disease in patients with previous infectious mononucleosis
Author(s) -
Kvåle Gunnar,
Arne Høiby Ernst,
Pedersen Einar
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910230502
Subject(s) - mononucleosis , medicine , epidemiology , lymphoma , incidence (geometry) , disease , confounding , hodgkin lymphoma , pediatrics , immunology , virus , physics , optics
Patients with a positive reaction to the Paul‐Bunnell test in the period 1961–72 were identified at nine different laboratories in Norway and matched against cases of malignant lymphoma registered at the Cancer Registry of Norway in the period 1961–75. Among 5, 840 patients having a positive Paul‐Bunnell test a total of six developed malignant lymphoma, three of these more than 1 year after the positive Paul‐Bunnell test. The expected number of malignant lymphoma was 2.04. Of the six lymphoma cases, five were classified as Hodgkin's disease (HD). The present investigation agrees well with the findings of other epidemiological studies. There seems to be a small excess in incidence of HD among patients with previous infectious mononucleosis (IM), but both diagnostic problems and possible confounding factors must be taken into account before a possible causal association is considered.