The Childhood Lymphomas

Abstract

The leukaemias and lymphomas of childhood account for almost half of the malignant disease seen in this age group in the Western world. The lymphomas represent 10% of the total, with an approximately even division between Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hodgkin’s disease was the first of the childhood lymphoid malignancies to become curable and still has the best prognosis of the group. The prognosis for acute lymphoid leukaemias improved substantially in the early 1970s but has recently been overtaken by dramatic advances in the curability of the non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.