[Familial occurrence of Hodgkin's disease].

Of a series of 300 patients with histologically verified Hodgkin's lymphoma, six cases of familial occurrence of the disease involving three families were reported from two clinical centers. In two families the affected patients were next of kin (daughter and father in the first family and two brothers in the third one). The interval between the onset of the disease was 6 years in the first and 4 months in the third family. In the second family an aunt and her niece were affected with an 18 year interval in the onset of the disease. The histological type was identical within the families involved (1 x LP and 2 x NS). Deficiency of cellular immunity was established in all the members of the two Prague families and the expression of HLA-A and B antigens of the MHC was determined in the first family. The involvement of environmental and genetic factors in familial Hodgkin's disease was analyzed also in the light of findings reported in the literature.