Liver irradiation in stage IIIA Hodgkin's disease patients with splenic involvement

Curative treatment for Hodgkin's disease for patients who are pathology-staged IIIA, spleen-positive, consisted of total nodal irradiation (TNI) alone at the University of Minnesota Hospitals prior to 1975. This approach has been modified since 1975 to give low-dose irradiation to the liver in addition to TNI because of the high recurrence rate with TNI alone. Recurrence-free survival improved significantly when the liver was irradiated as compared to results with TNI alone (78% vs. 41% at 5 years, p = 0.004). The 5-year, overall survival was not significantly different in the two groups (90% vs. 80% at 5 years, p = 0.373). Various prognostic factors were examined. Patients who received liver treatment had statistically significant improvement in recurrence-free survival as compared to patients who did not receive liver treatment in the following categories: anatomic substage IIIA1, histologic classification of nodular sclerosis, male gender, age less than 40, number of primary sites, and extent of splenic disease. However, these factors failed to show clinical significance as prognostic factors. We conclude that TNI with low-dose liver irradiation should be used as the primary modality of treatment of Hodgkin's disease, pathology-staged IIIA patients. We conclude that chemotherapy should be reserved for recurrences in view of the excellent current results and the lesser risk from treatment, especially the risk of carcinogenesis.