Treatment strategy for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma

Although Hodgkin lymphoma is a disease with a low incidence rate, there is a significant social resources perspective associated with this disease to ensure that adolescents and young adults are adequately treated and receive social reintegration. Consequently, Hodgkin lymphoma is considered an important disease in the field of oncology. Combined modality therapy, which combines chemotherapy and radiotherapy, has resulted in cure rates of more than 80% in patients with early stages of this disease, although long-term sequelae remain a problem. Response-adapted therapy using FDG-PET is being studied as a treatment strategy in an attempt to attenuate treatment to reduce toxicity in interim-PET negative cases and to enhance therapeutic intensity for interim-PET positive cases. In addition, brentuximab vedotin, which targets CD30 and anti-PD-1 antibodies, which represent immune checkpoint inhibitors, is effective even when treatment resistance develops after autologous transplantation. Both high cure rates and toxicity control are essential targets for treatment modalities of Hodgkin lymphoma. Long-term follow-up of secondary malignancy and heart and lung failure should be incorporated into such treatment strategies. In this review, I explore comprehensive treatment strategies for Hodgkin lymphoma in the early stage with both favorable and unfavorable prognosis, in the advanced stage, and relapsed or refractory disease.