Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation in Hodgkin's Disease-A Single Centre U.K. Experience

Twenty-five patients with relapsed or primary resistant Hodgkin's Disease were treated with high dose combination chemotherapy comprising cyclophosphamide, carmustine (BCNU) and etoposide followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT). Sixteen (67%) of the twenty-four patients who survived the treatment schedule attained complete response (CR) and eleven of these remain disease free at a median time post ABMT of 16 months (range 6 to 27 months). Two of the patients who relapsed died at 7 and 17 months and the remaining three patients are alive with persistent disease at 12, 14 and 18 months. Four patients showed partial response. Three of these developed disease progression soon after the procedure and all died within ten months. The remaining patient achieved CR following further chemotherapy. There was a tendency for patients with bulky mediastinal disease, extra-nodal disease and heavy pre-treatment to fail to achieve CR.