Medicine: Fatal Links?

Researchers have suspected for years that Hodgkin's disease—cancer of the lymphatic system—might be communicable to a small degree. New findings reported in the British medical publication Lancet offer the strongest evidence yet to support the theory: thirteen cases of the relatively rare illness have been discovered in Albany, N.Y. Each of the victims had associated with at least one of the others or with a mutual acquaintance. Ten have died.

Drs. Jack Davies of Albany Medical College, Peter Greenwald of the New York State Health Department, and Nicholas Vianna, a U.S. Public Health Service officer attached to Greenwald's office, began their investigation...

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