Hodgkin's disease in patients with previous infectious mononucleosis: 30 years' experience.

Seventeen out of 17,073 people in Denmark who had had a positive reaction to a Paul-Bunnell test between the years 1940 and 1969 developed Hodgkin's disease after an interval of at least 12 months. This number was significantly (P < 0.0002) greater than the expected number of two women and four men. Sixteen of those developing Hodgkin's disease were men. Case records, which were available for 12 of them, confirmed that they had had infectious mononucleosis. The number of cases of leukaemia that developed in the sample population was no greater than expected.