A CASE-CONTROL STUDY OF HODGKINS-DISEASE AND PREGNANCY

To evaluate the role of pregnancy in the pathogenesis and clinical cou rse of Hodgkin's disease (HD), we studied a series of 192 female patie nts aged 17-50 years at the time of diagnosis, and 496 healthy control s matched by residence and year of birth. Cases showed a marginally si gnificant excess for the father having a high level of eduction, and m ore families were classified as white-collar workers than as industria l workers. No significant differences between cases and controls were found in other parameters describing the family and living conditions in childhood. Before the age when cases were diagnosed, 35.4% of cases and 34.7% of their controls were nulliparous. Among the cases, the me an age at first delivery was 22.4 years, with a total of 201 children (average: 1.05 per case) born before diagnosis; for the controls, the corresponding figures were 22.2 years and 573 children (average: 1.15) . Within the first 6 months after the last delivery, HD was diagnosed in 12 of 124 parous cases (9.7%); for controls, the corresponding numb er is 18 out of 324 (5.6%). A marginally significant negative trend (P = 0.07) in odds ratios is seen with increasing duration of this inter val. We conclude that our study could not confirm previous reports of a protective effect of pregnancy for the risk of HD. On the other hand , marked physiological changes in the period of puerperium may acceler ate the expression of HD.