CT scan modification in the treatment of mediastinal Hodgkin's disease

Seventy-one patients with Hodgkin's disease who were initially treated at Johns Hopkins with radiation or radiation-chemotherapy from 1975--1980 had a five-year cumulative disease-free survival of I-A--100% (12 patients); II-A--85% (33 patients); II-B--83% (seven patients); III-A--75% (ten patients); and III-B--66% (nine patients). Fifty patients with mediastinal masses at the time of treatment demonstrated no marginal misses, two mediastinal recurrences (96% local control), and three lung disseminations. CT scan data yielded stage and treatment modification in 60% (9/15) of recent patients with mediastinal Hodgkin's disease. This demonstrates the need for routine thoracic scans and individual treatment planning in all mediastinal cases. Recommendations for combination treatment in early stage disease are made only for pericardial or extrathoracic chest wall extension based on CT scan findings, our low failure rates, radiation organ tolerances, and available relapse data in the literature, not arbitrary size designations from upright chest radiographs. It can be concluded that patients with mediastinal Hodgkin's disease require CT scan analysis to identify unusual patterns of presentations, sites at risk, and to allow for proper application of radiation portals and/or chemotherapeutic management.