According to Dr. Timothy Moynihan of the Mayo Clinic, both diseases are lymphomas, a type of cancer that originates in a subset of white blood cells called lymphocytes. The difference between Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's is in the specific lymphocytes involved.
In Hodgkin's disease, also called Hodgkin's lymphoma, the abnormal lymphocyte involved is the Reed-Sternberg cell (B lymphocyte). This particular lymphocyte isn't found in other types of lymphomas, so they are called non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. There are more than 30 different kinds of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
This distinction is important because treatment for Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's can be very different. A doctor can distinguish between Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's by examining the diseased cells under a microscope.
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