Hodgkin's Disease

Hodgkin's disease, sometimes called Hodgkin's lymphoma, is a cancer that starts in lymphatic tissue. Lymphatic tissue includes the lymph nodes and related organs that are part of the body's immune and blood-forming systems. The lymph nodes are small, bean-shaped organs found underneath the skin in the neck, underarm, groin, and elsewhere in the body. They are also found inside the chest, abdomen, and pelvis. Lymph nodes make and store infection-fighting white blood cells, called lymphocytes. …

…believe that these cells are a type of malignant B lymphocyte. Normal B lymphocytes are the cells that make antibodies that help fight infections. Doctors have given names to different types of Hodgkin's disease: lymphocyte predominance, nodular sclerosis, mixed cellularity, lymphocyte depletion, and unclassified. All of these types are malignant because as they grow, they may compress, invade, destroy normal tissue and spread to other tissues. There is no benign (noncancerous) form of Hodgkin's disease.