The clinical data of 21 children with Hodgkin's disease were retrospectively analyzed to identify their characteristics. Our patients were exclusively boys, ranging in age from 2 years and 9 months to 13 years and 9 months (median 7 years and 10 months). A diagnosis could not be made until after the 2nd to 4th biopsy attempt in 9 patients, with a median time lapse of 5 months from initial biopsy. The primary manifestation was generally nodal enlargement, but also included idiopathic cholestasis and Coombs' positive hemolytic anemia. The disease stages of the patients at diagnosis were 2 stage I; 5 stage II; 10 stage III; 1 stage IV; and 3 not determined. The histologic subtypes were 12 nodular sclerosis, 5 mixed cellularity and 4 lymphocyte predominance. Nine patients had "B" symptoms. Seventy-one percent were associated with anemia and the majority were microcytic. There was a high prevalence of advanced disease (61%). The therapy plan was affected by treatment philosophy at the time, availability of anticancer drugs and the family's attitude toward primary treatment. The patients were initially treated with either radiotherapy alone, chemotherapy alone or combined modality regimens. Five patients were lost within 3 months of diagnosis. The remaining 16 patients were followed, with the longest duration being 9.5 years. Two patients died: 4 were lost after 5-12 months of follow-up, (2 with disease, 2 with no evidence of disease); and the remaining 10 were still being followed (from 2 months to 9 1/2 years). Among those still being followed, 6 of them had discontinued their therapy 8 months to 4 years 5 months earlier and none of them had evidence of tumor recurrence.