Immunological deficiency and malignant lymphoma

Immunologkal studies suggest that Hodgkin's disease is the result of proliferation of a thymus dependent population of lymphocytes and that lymphatic leukemia is the result of a proliferation of a non-thymus-dependent population of lymphocytes. Certain congenital immune deficiency states are associated with a high incidence of malignant lymphoproliferative diseases. Such congenital diseases are overtly present in few patients with malignant lymphomas; however, evidence is adduced to show that there are physiological periods of relative immune deficiency and that these periods differ for the 2 populations of lymphocytes. The author hypothesizes that susceptible individuals are at increased risk of developing malignant lymphomas during these periods. This hypothesis helps to explain the wide difference in peak age distribution between lymphatic leukemia (the very young with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the very old with chronic lymphocytic leukemia) and Hodgkin's disease (the adolescent and young adult).