Clinical outcome in children and adolescents with Hodgkin lymphoma after treatment with chemotherapy alone - the results of the United Kingdom HD3 national cohort trial.

PURPOSE: To assess the efficacy of a standardised hybrid chemotherapy treatment programme for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in a national series of children and adolescents.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The 381 assessable patients, treated between March 2000 and April 2005 in the United Kingdom Children's Cancer Study Group trial, were reviewed to evaluate overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS) and deaths. Protocol treatment for stages 2-4 offered a hybrid programme of ChlVbPP (chlorambucil, vinblastine, prednisolone, procarbazine) alternating with ABVcD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vincristine, dacarbazine). Patients with stage I disease only were offered involved field radiation alone or hybrid chemotherapy.

RESULTS: With a median follow up of 5.1 years (range 0.5-8.4 years), the 5 years OS and DFS for all patients was 97% and 78%, respectively. By multivariate analysis, mediastinal and stage IV disease at presentation were the only factors that affected achieving a complete response. The 5-year DFS rate for patients with stage IV disease was 55% whilst patients with mediastinal disease had a 2-fold higher risk of an event.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that multi-agent chemotherapy alone is insufficient treatment for patients with mediastinal and stage IV disease.