Report of workshop 5: early high-dose chemotherapy

Workshop 5, entitled 'Early High-Dose Chemotherapy for Hodgkin's Lymphoma', was conducted at the Third International Symposium on Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Köln, Germany, on September 23, 1995. The objective of the workshop was to determine whether one could identify, at diagnosis, a high-risk group of Hodgkin's disease patients who could be subjected to high-dose therapy with acceptable toxicity as part of their initial therapy. D. Hasenclever of Leipzig, Germany, presented a preliminary analysis of a multivariate model which involved over 4000 patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease. Unfortunately, the model did not permit the definition of a significant group of patients with less than a 50% progression free survival at 5 years. A. Carella from Genoa, Italy, and S. J. Proctor from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, U.K., presented their ongoing randomized trials of early high-dose therapy while N. Schmitz from Kiel, Germany, presented the results of a matched pair analysis of patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy compared to patients receiving conventional chemotherapy. A. H. Goldstone from London, United Kingdom, and J. O. Armitage from Omaha, U.S.A., presented important long-term toxicity data. C. Gisselbrecht from Paris, France, presented the data on second neoplasms. D. L. Longo from Frederick, U.S.A., focused on the results of using either conventional or high-dose therapy as salvage therapy. In summary the workshop defined both the enthusiasm for improving the treatment results of patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease by using high-dose therapy and the problems associated with conducting those type of studies.