Breakthrough possible in Hodgkin’s Disease

Press, 18 February 1989, Page 9

Breakthrough possible in Hodgkin’s Disease

By

SARAH SANDS

A Christchurch research team believes it might have identified the malignant cell which causes Hodgkin’s Disease. The team, led by a Christchurch haematologist, Dr Derek Hart, works at Christchurch Hospital in association with the Christchurch School of Medicine. Hodgkin’s Disease is a condition in which the lymphatic glands in the body gradually enlarge. The Associate Dean of Research at the Christchurch School of Medicine, Associate Professor Robin Fraser, said the cell had eluded classification for years. . “But Dr Hart’s team believes it to be a malignant variation of the dendritic cell, a cell which makes each person immunologically different,” he said. The discovery would make treat-

ment of the disease much easier because it would allow treatment to be aimed at a specific cell, said Associate Professor Fraser. A paper on the team’s discovery has been accepted for publication by a British immunological journal. Dr Hart, a former Rhodes scholar, would leave for Oxford on Monday for a year, said Associate Professor Fraser. “He hopes to expand the joint studies into leukemia between the Christchurch and Oxford research groups,’” he said. “It is going to be an enormous advantage to the research group in Christchurch having him over there because he will be looking at techniques and bringing them home, gearing up to make the bone-marrow transplants locally even better,” said Associate Professor Fraser.