Department of Oncology, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK.
Abstract
Hodgkin's disease (HD) appears to occur more frequently in people with HIV and within this population HD demonstrates a number of differences. In people with HIV, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is found more frequently in Reed-Sternberg cells and mixed cellularity and lymphocyte depleted histological subtypes predominate. Patients with HIV present with more advanced stage HD often with extranodal disease. The prognostic variables for HD in patients with HIV relate to the HIV rather than the HD. In people with HIV the response rates are lower, the relapse rates higher, the infectious complications more frequent and the overall survival worse than for HD in the general population.