STUDIES OF IMMUNOLOGIC REACTIONS OF PATIENTS WITH HODGKIN'S DISEASE

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the exact mode and site of antibody production are L subject to debate, it appears evident that the lymphoreticuloendothelial system participates in this process.¹ Hence, one might expect that a generalized disease affecting that system might also alter normal immunologic responses. That the latter may occur is suggested by the high incidence of tuberculin energy² and the general "poverty of the immunological response" in patients with Hodgkin's disease, resulting in "their increased susceptibility to infection."³ In five years of close clinical contact with more than 150 patients who had Hodgkin's disease, no greatly increased incidence of intercurrent disorders, such as infections of the upper respiratory tract, pneumonitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis, furunculosis and infections of biopsy wounds, was noted. Since this experience was at variance with the opinion expressed in the above quotation, we were prompted to make a more objective investigation of the immunologic responses of our