Familial Hodgkin's disease

Familial Hodgkin is a well defined entity with one or more members from the same family to be affected. Ln most of the studied cases there is a lack o f Epstein Barr virus (BBV) association while in Hodgkin's disease generally there has been an established correlation with EBV genome. Two cases of fa milial Hodgkin's disease are described. The first concerns a boy, 12 years old, with left cervical lymphadenopathy, biopsy positive for mixed cellular ity Hodgkin's disease and clinical and laboratory staging IIIA. His grandfa ther of maternal origin had been diagnosed with nodular sclerosis Hodgkin's disease stage IIIA, 10 years ago. The second concerns a boy, 10 years old, with cervical lymph nodes biopsy proven to be nodullar sclerosis Hodgkin's disease stage IIIA. Ten years ago, while his mother was in the 4th month o f pregnancy, his father had been diagnosed for nodular sclerosis Hodgkin's disease stage IA from biopsy of left inguinal lymph node. Lymph nodes from both of the above cases showed the presence of EBV (EBER and LMP with in si tu hybridization and immunohistochemistry). The occurrence of familial Hodg kin's disease and its correlation with EBV in our cases as well as with tho se reported in the literature are discussed.