Hodgkin's Disease
Hodgkin's lymphoma, also known as Hodgkin's disease, is a type of lymphoma first described by Thomas Hodgkin in 1832. Hodgkin's lymphoma is characterized clinically by the orderly spread of disease from one lymph node group to another and by the development of systemic symptoms with advanced disease. Pathologically, the disease is characterized by the presence of Reed-Sternberg cells. Hodgkin's lymphoma was one of the first cancers to be cured by radiation. Later it was one of the first to be cured by combination chemotherapy. However, about 25% of patients are not cured and probably approximately equal numbers of patients die of tumor as of the adverse consequences of treatment that are often referred to as "late effects" (second malignancies, heart disease, lung disease, infection).