Hodgkin disease: prognostic factors and treatment strategies

Depending on stage and risk factor profile, more than 80% of patients with Hodgkin disease (HD) will be cured with modern treatment strategies. In early-stage, favorable HD, extended field irradiation has been the standard treatment resulting in cure rates of greater than 90%. However, due to the recognition of fatal long-term effects, especially the high rates of second solid tumors, extended field irradiation therapy is now being abandoned by most study groups. Instead, mild chemotherapy for control of occult disease is combined with involved field irradiation. In early-stage, unfavorable (intermediate) HD, for which combined modality treatment is already the treatment of choice, extended field irradiation is replaced by involved field irradiation for the same reasons. A different situation is found in advanced HD. In this case, standard therapy consists of eight cycles of polychemotherapy. Until recently, modifications of the standard chemotherapy regimens had not changed the poor outcome of advanced-stage patients. The development of a new dose-intensified regimen (BEACOPP) now for the first time has significantly improved the prognosis of these patients. Patients who relapse following radiation therapy alone for early stage HD have satisfactory results with combination chemotherapy and are not considered candidates for high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation. For patients with relapsed HD after combination chemotherapy, the current data support the use of high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation.