The prognostic significance of age in patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease

One hundred and forty-eight patients with Stage III and IV Hodgkin's disease, treated at a single institution, were studied to investigate the importance of age as a prognostic pre-study factor. The median age of the patients was 30 (2-81). All patients received combination chemotherapy. The overall response rate was 85%. The median survival is not reached with a median follow-up time of 9.6 years. Age was found to be the dominant prognostic discriminant with younger patients having a better survival. Factors which were significant in a univariate analysis were performance status (PS), stage, weight loss, histology and liver involvement. In a stepwise logistic regression model, however, only age and PS remained independent significant prognostic discriminants. It is concluded that even in the absence of serious concomitant disease, such as heart disease, age is the single most important prognostic variable.