Hodgkin's disease. International mortality patterns and time trends.

Mortality rates for Hodgkin's disease calculated by WHO since 1957 are analyzed. In spite of a rather limited variability of the age-adjusted rates, important differences are found in age-specific rates. The mortality curve has 3 main peaks: one in childhood, one in young adults and one in older adults. Only the latter is observed uniformly in all populations. The international variability in the first 2 peaks suggests the effect of host factors in determining the age of onset and the clinical and pathological characteristics of the disease. The last peak is more in line with the usual shape of mortality curves of neoplastic diseases. A slight drop in mortality rates in recent years is reported from some countries.