Persistent immunologic abnormalities in long-term survivors of advanced Hodgkin's disease.

Immunologic studies were done on 47 long-term survivors of Hodgkin's disease who had been treated with MOPP chemotherapy (mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone). Percentages of E rosettes and mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferation were significantly reduced compared to those in normal control subjects. There was no tendency for these abnormalities to return to the normal range with increasing disease-free intervals. No abnormalities of B-cell number or function were detected. Long-term survivors of advanced diffuse histiocytic lymphoma treated with comparable chemotherapy, who served as a control population, had significantly higher percentages of E rosettes and no reduction in mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferation. Thus these persistent immunologic abnormalities cannot be attributed to chemotherapy alone. The presence of similar immunologic abnormalities in untreated patients with Hodgkin's disease of all stages and in patients cured by either MOPP or radiotherapy suggests that depressed cellular immunity may be an inherent characteristic of the person in whom Hodgkin's disease develops.