A specialist leukaemia/lymphoma registry in the UK. Part 2: Clustering of Hodgkin's disease.

Part 1 describes the epidemiology of Hodgkin's disease occurring in those parts of the United Kingdom which are included in the Leukaemia Research Fund data collection survey. A total of 1,023 cases diagnosed between 1984 and 1986 were available for analysis. At county and district levels there was little heterogeneity in the distribution of cases. However, at the electoral ward level there were real differences for the younger age group (0-34). In this paper methods of investigation which are not dependent on census boundaries are applied and the presence of localised spatial clustering is confirmed. There is some evidence that the pattern of clustering relates to the nodular sclerosing subtype. These results are related to hypotheses of an infectious aetiology.