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American Morning

'House Call'

Aired October 02, 2003 - 09:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Researchers have found a worrisome link between a common virus in young adults and Hodgkin's Disease, a type of cancer that effects the body's lymphatic system.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center now with more on this.

Sanjay, is this a milestone in understanding Hodgkin's?

Well, I think for a long time, doctors have suspected there is a link between the virus that causes mono and Hodgkin's Disease. They have proven almost conclusively with this study.

Sort of an interesting study, Heidi, and I'll just back up for a second here, because most people know what mono is. First of all, it's caused by a virus that affects just about everybody at one time or another, one of the most common human viruses. Most people are going to get infected sometime in their lives. The mono is obviously something that's hallmarked by fatigue, cough, fever, swelling of the lymph glands, things like that. Those are all the trademarks of mono. Most people know those sorts of symptoms. Hodgkin's Disease, on the other hand, is a fairly rare cancer, but they have found this virus, the same virus that's found in mono, they have found that in Hodgkin's for some time, so they decided to put it to the test, and the way they did that is they actually had 63,000 young people, people who have not had a previous history of mono, half of them, and another half of them who have had a previous history of mono.

Take a look at the list of Hodgkin's Disease symptoms. We will come back to that in a second. But the 63,000 people. They divided it into two groups, people who've had mono in the past, people who have, and they decided to find out what percentage of people actually developed Hodgkin's Disease out of the people who've had mono in the past. They found out that almost twice as likely to develop Hodgkin's Disease if they've had a previous history of mononucleosis, and that was sort of the thing that they were looking for. They were trying to figure out, in fact, if the Epstein Bar (ph) Virus was found in Hodgkin's Disease, if those patients actually had a previous history of mono.

A little bit confusing there, but take a look at it like this, mono being a fairly common thing, sort of the kissing disease, as many people know of it. Is there an increased link between that and developing Hodgkin's later on down the road? People say yes, now twice as likely. Although remember now, keep in mind, you saw the numbers just briefly there, Hodgkin's Disease, a very rare disease, only about 7,600 cases in the year. It does occur in both children and adults. It tends to effect men more than women, 10 to 15 percent cases in children less than 16 years of age. But the death rates have fallen over the past several years. They may fall even further now as they have proven this link once and for all -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, CNN's Sanjay Gupta. Thanks so much, Sanjay. Appreciate it.

GUPTA: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 2, 2003 - 09:20   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Researchers have found a worrisome link between a common virus in young adults and Hodgkin's Disease, a type of cancer that effects the body's lymphatic system.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from the CNN Center now with more on this.

Sanjay, is this a milestone in understanding Hodgkin's?

Well, I think for a long time, doctors have suspected there is a link between the virus that causes mono and Hodgkin's Disease. They have proven almost conclusively with this study.

Sort of an interesting study, Heidi, and I'll just back up for a second here, because most people know what mono is. First of all, it's caused by a virus that affects just about everybody at one time or another, one of the most common human viruses. Most people are going to get infected sometime in their lives. The mono is obviously something that's hallmarked by fatigue, cough, fever, swelling of the lymph glands, things like that. Those are all the trademarks of mono. Most people know those sorts of symptoms. Hodgkin's Disease, on the other hand, is a fairly rare cancer, but they have found this virus, the same virus that's found in mono, they have found that in Hodgkin's for some time, so they decided to put it to the test, and the way they did that is they actually had 63,000 young people, people who have not had a previous history of mono, half of them, and another half of them who have had a previous history of mono.

Take a look at the list of Hodgkin's Disease symptoms. We will come back to that in a second. But the 63,000 people. They divided it into two groups, people who've had mono in the past, people who have, and they decided to find out what percentage of people actually developed Hodgkin's Disease out of the people who've had mono in the past. They found out that almost twice as likely to develop Hodgkin's Disease if they've had a previous history of mononucleosis, and that was sort of the thing that they were looking for. They were trying to figure out, in fact, if the Epstein Bar (ph) Virus was found in Hodgkin's Disease, if those patients actually had a previous history of mono.

A little bit confusing there, but take a look at it like this, mono being a fairly common thing, sort of the kissing disease, as many people know of it. Is there an increased link between that and developing Hodgkin's later on down the road? People say yes, now twice as likely. Although remember now, keep in mind, you saw the numbers just briefly there, Hodgkin's Disease, a very rare disease, only about 7,600 cases in the year. It does occur in both children and adults. It tends to effect men more than women, 10 to 15 percent cases in children less than 16 years of age. But the death rates have fallen over the past several years. They may fall even further now as they have proven this link once and for all -- Heidi.

COLLINS: All right, CNN's Sanjay Gupta. Thanks so much, Sanjay. Appreciate it.

GUPTA: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com