Hodgkin's disease may respond well to therapy. Thus, it is important to determine the stage of the disease and the histologic type of HD in order to provide the most appropriate therapy.

Hodgkin's Disease - Classification
Type	Histologic Features	Frequency	Prognosis
Nodular sclerosis	Bands of fibrosis, lacunar cells	Most frequent type, more common in women	Good, most are stage I or II
Mixed cellularity	Composed of many different cells	Most frequent in older persons, second most frequent overall	Fair, most are stage III
Lymphocyte predominance	Mostly B-cells and few Reed-Sternberg variant cells	Uncommon	Good, most are stage I or II
Lymphocyte depletion	Many Reed-Sternberg cells and variants	Uncommon	Poor, most are stage III or IV

Hodgkin's Disease - Staging
Stage	Characteristics
I	Only a single lymph node site or extranodal site is involved
II	Two or more lymph node sites on one side of the diaphragm are involved, or limited contiguous extranodal site involvement
III	Lymph node sites on both sides of the diaphragm are involved, with splenic or limited contiguous extradodal site involvement, or both
IV	Extensive involvement of extranodal sites, with or without lymph node involvement

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