Regression of lung lesions in Hodgkin's disease by antibiotics: case report and hypothesis on the etiology of Hodgkin's disease.

In this article, we propose that the pathogenesis of Hodgkin's disease is similar to the one of crown gall tumors in plants. Here a natural exchange of genetic material from (oncogenic plasmids) to plant cells induces malignant tumors in dicotyledons. The "crown gall" hypothesis for Hodgkin's disease would explain the clinical observations of a bacterial infection the behavior as a malignant tumor. The clinical consequence of this hypothesis is that antibiotic treatments of very early Hodgkin's disease may be successful before the genetic exchange between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells has taken place. This "crown gall" hypothesis is testable (1) by looking for bacterial DNA sequences in Reed-Sternberg and Hodgkin's cells, and (2) by antibiotic treatments of Hodgkin's patients. In this communication we show a regression of Hodgkin's disease in the lung by prolonged treatment with ciprofloxacin and clarithromycin.