Advances in the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma

Given the successful treatment for most patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma, efforts have been directed primarily toward improving outcomes for the minority of patients with poor prognosis or relapsed disease or reducing the late effects of therapy for long-term survivors. Recently, a simple and clinically useful prognostic scoring system was developed for patients with advanced disease. This system allows better risk assessment for individual patients and more uniformity among patients participating in clinical trials. In addition, trials using newer chemotherapeutic regimens such as Stanford V or BEACOPP (bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone) are maturing with promising results. Other studies are helping to define the role of high-dose therapy for patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma, although biologic treatments such as cellular or antibody-based therapies are still in early phases of development. Lastly, positron emission tomographic scanning is emerging as a useful tool in staging and following Hodgkin's lymphoma.