Micromanipulation of single Hodgkin-Reed/Sternberg cells and subsequent nucleic acid amplification (H-RS single cell PCR) has now been established as a new and powerful method for specific genetic analysis of the tumor cells in Hodgkin's disease (HD). Although there are still some discrepancies in the results presented by different groups, most probably due to methodological problems, H-RS cells, at least in a substantial proportion of cases, seem to be B-lymphoid cells of monoclonal origin. In addition, new data were presented on the cytokine/cytokine receptor interaction in HD, on transcription factors in HD-derived cell lines and on a promising approach for identification of tumor associated antigens in HD.