Tonsillectomy and Hodgkin's Disease

To the Editor: In a recent issue of the Journal, Johnson and Johnson¹ present data that they interpret as not supporting the report by Vianna et al.² of increased risk of Hodgkin's disease among persons with a history of tonsillectomy. Our interpretation of the Johnsons' data is that they show a positive association similar to that in the earlier report.The Johnsons ascertained the tonsillectomy history of 174 patients with Hodgkin's disease and, as controls, all 472 of their siblings. However, to control presumably important differences between patients and sibs for age and sex, analysis was restricted to a . . .