Current management of Hodgkin's disease

The prognosis of patients with Hodgkin's disease has dramatically improved over the past few decades. Treatment with currently standard radiotherapy or combination chemotherapy programmes will result in durable complete remissions and probable cure in most patients. However, these programmes are intensive, technically demanding, and associated with a risk of certain acute side effects and long term complications which vary in nature and severity according to the specific therapy employed. The outlook for the few patients who do not achieve complete remission with induction therapy, or for those who later relapse (especially after complete remissions induced by chemotherapy), is less optimistic. Current trials of innovative induction and salvage therapies may lead to improved treatment approaches for such patients.