Treatment outcome of limited stage Hodgkin's disease

The 10-year overall survival rate following conventional treatments for patients with limited-stage Hodgkin's disease (HD) exceeds 90%. However, the clinical features and treatment outcome of HD in Korea have not been extensively characterized due to its low incidence. In this study, we attempted to analyze the treatment outcome of different modalities in limited stage HD patients.

Twenty one Hodgkin's disease patients, referred to the Samsung Medical Center between January 1997 and December 2003, were enrolled in this study. Limited stage Hodgkin's disease was subdivided into low and high risk groups. All evaluable patients received treatment.

There were 13 and 8 patients in the low and high risk groups, respectively. Eighteen patients (86%) obtained complete response (CR) and 3 patients (14%) achieved an undetermined complete response (CRu). Fourteen (67%), 4 (19%) and 3 (14%) cases received combination chemotherapy, radiotherapy alone and chemotherapy alone, respectively. Four cases relapsed and 2 obtained a second CR. The 5-year overall and disease-free survival rates were 90 and 72%, respectively, for all patients. The median follow-up duration was 31 months. There was no difference in disease free survival (DFS) between the low and high risk groups. Although 12 cases had neutropenia greater than grade III, none experienced neutropenic fever.

The treatment outcome of limited-stage HD was excellent, regardless to the initial treatment modality.