Epidemiology of nodular paragranuloma (Hodgkin's disease with lymphocytic predominance, nodular)

Abstract

The age and sex distribution and the localization of excised lymph nodes from 206 patients with a nodular variant of Hodgkin's disease with lymphocytic predominance, called “nodular paragranuloma”, are presented and compared with data on other types of Hodgkin's disease. The age curve of nodular paragranuloma showed a peak in the fourth decade, which was clearly separated from the peak in the third decade exhibited by the nodular sclerosis type of Hodgkin's disease and from the peak in the sixth and seventh decades of the mixed cellularity type. The peak in the age curve of nodular paragranuloma resulted from the high frequency in men in the fourth decade; the female age curve had no peaks. The overall male-to-female ratio was 2.4:1. The age and sex distribution of diffuse paragranuloma was nearly identical to that of nodular paragranuloma, whereas the age and sex distribution of cases of the lymphocytic predominance type other than paragranuloma resembled that of the mixed cellularity type. These data indicate that the lymphocytic predominance type of Hodgkin's disease is not a uniform group and support the view that paragranuloma is a separate entity.