SPH Epidemiologists Present Theory on Hodgkins Disease

Children raised in small, sheltered, upper-class environments have a greater chance of developing Hodgkin's disease, a form of cancer, than large families living in congested quearters, a report by two doctors associated with the School of Public Health (SPH), states.

In a New England Journal of Medicine article released today, Dr. Nancy Gutensohn, teaching fellow in Epidemiology at the SPH, and Dr. Phillip Cole, a former professor of Epidemiology, report that exposure at a young age to the virus which causes Hodgkin's disease can partially immunize children against the cancer. Children who live in crowded apartments, where germs spread quickly, therfore are likely to be protected from the disease.

"Persons at relatively high risk for the disease during young adulthood are those who as children belonged to small families, lived in single-family homes, had relatively few neighborhood playmates and relatively well-educated parents," the researchers wrote.

The report continues that "Persons at relatively low risk are those who belonged to large families, were of late birth order, lived in multiple-family dwellings and had many neighborhood playmates."

The study also stated that victims were twice as likely to be Jewish as Roman Catholic and that adults who contract the same virus that only mildly affects children are more likely to contract to the disease.

The researchers said in the article that their theory evolved out of their own studies and their colleagues.' However, no analytical study investigating this theory has been undertaken previously.

The doctors based their conclusions on interviews with 225 people who were stricken with Hodgkin's disease between 1973 and 1977. The 225 victims represented 86 per cent of all patients with the disease between ages 15 and 39 in Boston and in Worcester, Mass. The results from the patients were compared with the experience of 447 randomly selected people.

Nice Guys

Dr. Howard H. Hiatt, dean of the School of Public Health, yesterday called Gutensohn and Cole extremely competent people, adding, "I have great confidence in their judgment. Dr. Cole is one of the most respected epidemiologists. Dr. Gutensohn, a new entry, has shown extraordinary intelligence and promise."

Cole worked at the SPH before moving to the University of Alabama.

Hodgkin's disease kills approximately 7 100 people each year, according to the American Cancer Society. If untreated, the disease usually causes death within five years, but it can be slowed or halted if caught in its early stages.