Hodgkin's disease: histological classification and diagnosis

Abstract

A review of the previous histological classifications of Hodgkin's disease seems to show that they are insufficiently accurate in regard to prognosis and difficult to apply but a detailed study of a large number of cases suggests that certain criteria allow of subdivision of the disease into types. These criteria are the proportion of mature lymphocytes, the presence of plentiful mature histiocytes, the presence of fibrous nodularity, and the numbers of abnormal reticulum cells and their degree of anaplasia. Three primary histological subdivisions seem to arise from a study of 302 patients, namely, the reticular, histiocytic, and nodular sclerosis groups. These are further divided into well differentiated and poorly differentiated on the basis of their lymphocyte content and the degree of anaplasia of the abnormal reticulum cells. The histological appearances of each type are described. The application of this histological classification has been shown to correlate well with the clinical outcome.