Hodgkin's Disease - Causes, Symptoms and Treatment

Hodgkin's disease is one of a group of cancers called lymphomas. Lymphomas are cancers that develop in the lymphatic system, a part of the body's immune system. It's named after the British physician Thomas Hodgkin, who first described the disease in 1832 and noted several characteristics that distinguish it from other lymphomas. The lymphatic system includes a network of thin tubes that branch, like blood vessels, into the tissues throughout the body. Lymphatic vessels carry lymph, a colorless, watery fluid that contains infection-fighting cells called lymphocytes. Along this network of vessels are groups of small, bean-shaped organs called lymph nodes that filter the lymph as it passes through the nodes. Clusters of lymph nodes are found in the underarm, groin, neck, and abdomen. Other parts of the lymphatic system are the spleen, thymus, tonsils, and bone marrow. Hodgkin's disease most commonly affects people between the ages of 15 and 40 and people older than age 55. It's one of two common types of cancers of the lymphatic system. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the other type, is far more common. In the United States in 2004, there were about 7,880 new cases of Hodgkin's disease, compared with 54,320 new cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Each year, about 1,300 Americans die of Hodgkin's disease. However, death rates for this disease have dropped by 60 percent since the 1970s. Advances in diagnosis, staging and treatment of Hodgkin's disease have helped to make this once uniformly fatal disease highly treatable with the potential for full recovery.

Hodgkins disease is now known as Hodgkin's lymphoma. This disease is a lymphoma that involves the methodical metastasizing of cancer cells through out the lymph system, from one node to another. Hodgkin's Lymphoma is one of the first cancers to be curable through combination chemotherapy. Hodgkins disease causes the lymphatic tissue to become enlarged and press on other organs. The cancer can spread through the lymphatic vessels, and if Hodgkins disease gets into the blood vessels it can spread to almost any other place in the body. Hodgkin's disease may occur in a single lymph node, a group of lymph nodes, or, sometimes, in other parts of the lymphatic system such as the bone marrow and spleen. This type of cancer tends to spread in a fairly orderly way from one group of lymph nodes to the next group. For example, Hodgkin's disease that arises in the lymph nodes in the neck spreads first to the nodes above the collarbones, and then to the lymph nodes under the arms and within the chest.

Causes of Hodgkins Disease

Common Causes of Hodgkins-Disease :

Anyone with a brother or a sister who has the disease faces an increased risk of developing Hodgkin's, though this may be due to similar environmental exposures rather than genetic factors.
People between the ages of 15 and 40, as well as those older than 55, are most at risk of Hodgkin's disease.
People who have had illnesses caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, such as infectious mononucleosis, may be four times as likely to develop Hodgkin's disease as people who haven't had a past Epstein-Barr infection.
Having a compromised immune system, such as from HIV/AIDS or from having an organ transplant requiring medications to suppress your immune response, also appears to put you at a greater risk of Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Males are slightly more likely to develop Hodgkins disease.

Symptoms of Hodgkins Disease

Signs and symptoms of Hodgkins disease may include:

Loss of appetite.
Unexplained weight loss.
Fever and chills .
Itching.
Night sweats.
Painless swelling of lymph nodes in your neck, armpits or groin.

Treatment of Hodgkins Disease

Chemotherapy
Bone marrow and peripheral blood transplants.
Immunotherapy and radiation therapy.

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