A comparison of histological appearances of Hodgkin's disease in Pakistani and Saudi patients.

BACKGROUND Hodgkin's disease (HD) is a relatively rare lymphoma that affects younger as well as older persons. It is reported in the Western as well as Asian studies that HD is a rare disease in developing world. It is commoner in males in most of the countries and shows a bimodal pattern of age. The commonest subtype is nodular sclerosis in the west and mixed cellularity in the eastern and developing countries. The present study compares eight years' data of HD as regard age, sex, site of anatomical presentation and subtypes according to WHO classification among Pakistani and Saudi patients. METHODS This retrospective comparative study included 211 cases of HD from various institutions of Lahore, Pakistan; and 78 cases retrieved from the data of King Abdul Aziz Hospital and Oncology Centre, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. RESULTS The analysis of both data of HD showed lack of bimodal age pattern and was common among younger age. Male was the dominating sex. Cervical group of lymph nodes was the commonest presenting site. Mixed cellularity HD (MCHD) was the commonest subtype among Pakistani patients whereas Nodular Sclerotic HD (NSHD) was more common among Saudis. CONCLUSION A comparison of the pattern of Pakistani and Saudi data of HD showed lack of bimodality in both. The male sex predominated. Morphologically the MCHD and NSHD were the commonest subtypes in Pakistani & Saudi patients respectively.