Intensive investigation in management of Hodgkin's disease.
(1/3116)
Ninety-eight patients with clinically localised Hodgkin's disease underwent laparotomy and splenectomy to determine the extent of microscopic spread. In 68 patients the procedure was carried out for untreated disease apparently confined above the diaphragm. Abdominal disease cannot be confidently excluded on the basis of non-invasive investigation at presentation. Clinical assessment of splenic disease was unreliable unless gross splenomegaly was present. Pedal lymphography was accurate in assessing para-aortic and iliac disease but of no value in assessing other intra-abdominal lymph node involvement, including that of the mesenteric lymph node. Trephine bone marrow biopsy findings were normal in all patients before surgery, and only one patient was found to have diseased bone marrow by Stryker-saw biopsy at operation. Liver disease was identified at operation in nine patients, some of whom were asymptomatic with clinically undetectable splenic and nodal disease. Detailed clinical staging failed to detect disease in one-third of patients who underwent laparotomy. These studies show that if radiotherapy is to remain the treatment of choice for disease truly localised to lymph nodes a detailed staging procedure, including laparotomy and splenectomy, remains essential. The value of this potentially curative treatment is considerably diminished in the patient who has been inadequately staged. (+info)
Prednisone in MOPP chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease.
(2/3116)
High remission rates have been produced by MOPP (mustine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone) chemotherapy in patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease, but the prednisone component has caused adverse effects in patients who have undergone radiotherapy. The remission rates and length of remission were reviewed in 211 patients with Hodgkin's disease who received chemotherapy either with or without prednisone. In contrast to the findings of a British study, there were no significant differences in remission rates or length of remission between patients who had received prednisone and patients who had not. There were differences between the British prospective study and this retrospective one, but it is difficult to know what accounted for the substantial differences in the findings. (+info)
Clinical presentation, course, and prognostic factors in lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease and lymphocyte-rich classical Hodgkin's disease: report from the European Task Force on Lymphoma Project on Lymphocyte-Predominant Hodgkin's Disease.
(3/3116)
PURPOSE: Recent studies have suggested that lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease (LPHD) is both clinically and pathologically distinct from other forms of Hodgkin's disease, including classical Hodgkin's disease (CHD). However, large-scale clinical studies were lacking. This multicenter, retrospective study investigated the clinical characteristics and course of LPHD patients and lymphocyte-rich classical Hodgkin's disease (LRCHD) patients classified according to morphologic and immunophenotypic criteria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical data and biopsy material of all available cases initially submitted as LPHD were collected from 17 European and American centers, stained, and reclassified by expert pathologists. RESULTS: The 426 assessable cases were reclassified as LPHD (51%), LRCHD (27%), CHD (5%), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (3%), and reactive lesion (3%); 11% of cases were not assessable. Patients with LPHD and LRCHD were predominantly male, with early-stage disease and few risk factors. Patients with LRCHD were significantly older. Survival and failure-free survival rates with adequate therapy were similar for patients with LPHD and LRCHD, and were stage-dependent and not significantly better than stage-comparable results for CHD (German trial data). Twenty-seven percent of relapsing LPHD patients had multiple relapses, which is significantly more than the 5% of relapsing LRCHD patients who had multiple relapses. Lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin's disease patients had significantly superior survival after relapse compared with LRCHD or CHD patients; however, this was partly due to the younger average age of LPHD patients. CONCLUSION: The two subgroups of LPHD and LRCHD bore a close clinical resemblance that was distinct from CHD; the course was similar to that of comparable nodular sclerosis and mixed cellularity patients. Thorough staging is necessary to detect advanced disease in LPHD and LRCHD patients. The question of how to treat such patients, either by reducing treatment intensity or following a "watch and wait" approach, remains unanswered. (+info)
Autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation for relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease in children and adolescents.
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PURPOSE: To determine the treatment outcome and clinical factors that are of prognostic significance for children and adolescents with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease (HD) who received treatment with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifty-three consecutive children and adolescents 21 years of age or younger with relapsed or refractory HD underwent HSCT. RESULTS: At day 100 after transplantation, 29 patients (55%) were in a complete remission or maintained a continuous complete response, six (11%) had a partial response, and 11 (21%) failed to respond or had progressive disease. The failure-free survival (FFS) at 5 years was 31%, and overall survival was 43%. Twenty-one patients died of progressive HD, and nine died secondary to transplantation-related complications, including two secondary leukemias. Prognostic factors important for FFS were normal pretransplantation lactate dehydrogenase levels (5-year FFS = 42%), compared with patients with elevated LDH levels (5-year FFS = 0%) (P < .001), and disease sensitivity at the time of HSCT with FFS in untreated relapse, sensitive disease, and resistant disease 44%, 35%, and 9%, respectively (P = .06). There was no statistically significant difference in FFS or overall survival between age subgroups that were analyzed (< 13, 13 to 18, 19 to 21) or in comparison with an adult cohort. CONCLUSION: HSCT is an effective treatment modality that can result in long-term cures and should be considered for children and adolescents with relapsed HD. (+info)
Reduced health-related quality of life among Hodgkin's disease survivors: a comparative study with general population norms.
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BACKGROUND: Late complications after curative treatment of Hodgkin's disease are of special relevance because most of the cured are young adults. The aims of the present study were: (1) to compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in Hodgkin's disease (HD) survivors with normative data from the general Norwegian population and (2) to examine the relations between disease/treatment characteristics and HRQOL in the HD survivors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 459 HD survivors aged 19-74 years (mean 44.0, SD 11.8) treated at the Norwegian Radium Hospital 1971-1991 were approached in 1994 and compared to norms from 2214 subjects approached in 1996. The norms are representative of the general Norwegian population. HRQOL was assessed by the Short Form 36 (SF-36), which measures HRQOL in eight separate scales (0 = worst health state, 100 = best health state). RESULTS: The HD survivors had lower scores than the normal controls on all scales after adjustment for age, gender and educational levels. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.01) were found in general health (10.4), physical functioning (6.1), role limitations (physical, 9.3), physical functioning (3.6) and in vitality (4.7). Patients with disease stage IB-IIB had the lowest scores on all scales. The differences in relation to stage/substage reached statistical significance (P < 0.01) in physical functioning and in role limitations (physical). Time since diagnosis, types of primary treatment or having relapsed were not associated with statistically significant differences in HRQOL. CONCLUSION: Long-term HD survivors have poorer HRQOL, primarily in physical health, than the general Norwegian population. (+info)
Bone marrow scintigraphy using technetium-99m antigranulocyte antibody in malignant lymphomas.
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BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to elucidate the clinical reliability of immunoscintigraphy (IS) to detect infiltration of the bone marrow in patients with malignant lymphoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Whole body IS was performed in 103 patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) using Tc-99m labelled anti-NCA-95 which allows visualization of the granulopoietic bone marrow. Of these, 52% were studied prior to any therapy. Findings were compared to posterior iliac crest biopsy as well as MRI and/or follow-up examination. Criteria of marrow infiltration were a positive biopsy, positive follow-up, or positive results of MRI. RESULTS: Comparison of IS and biospy revealed concordant findings in 69 and discordant findings in 34 of 103 patients. Of the 34 patients with discordant results, IS showed lesions suspicious of bone marrow infiltration in 29 patients despite normal biopsy findings. When follow-up and additional examinations were taken into consideration, 10 patients remained with probably false positive and five with false negative IS findings. IS proved to be highly sensitive and specific in patients with HD (100% and 84%, respectively) and high-grade NHL (93% and 84%, respectively). Moderate sensitivity (60%) was found in low-grade NHL. This was possibly due to false negative IS in three to five patients with chemotherapy in contrast to one of five false negative results in patients without chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: Bone marrow scintigraphy using antigranulocyte antibodies is highly sensitive in HD and high-grade NHL. Positive findings in IS subsequent to a negative biopsy should be followed by guided re-biopsy or MRI. (+info)
Autotransplants for Hodgkin's disease in patients never achieving remission: a report from the Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry.
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PURPOSE: Hodgkin's disease patients who never achieve complete remission with conventional chemotherapy (i.e., those with primary induction failure) have a poor prognosis. Some subjects who receive high-dose therapy with autologous hematopoietic progenitor-cell infusion experience prolonged progression-free survival. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Detailed records from the Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry (ABMTR) on 122 Hodgkin's disease patients who failed to achieve complete remission after one or more conventional therapy regimens and subsequently received an autotransplant between 1989 and 1995 were reviewed. RESULTS: Median age was 27 years (range, 7 to 57 years). Median time from diagnosis to transplantation was 14 months (range, 5 to 38 months). Most patients received high-dose chemotherapy without radiation for pretransplantation conditioning (n = 107). The regimen most frequently used was cyclophosphamide, carmustine, and etoposide (n = 47). Fifteen patients received total-body irradiation (n = 15). The graft consisted of bone marrow (n = 86), blood stem cells (n = 25), or both (n = 11). The 100-day mortality was 12% (95% confidence interval, 7% to 19%). Sixty patients (50%) were considered to have achieved complete remission after autotransplantation; 37 of these had negative imaging studies, whereas scan abnormalities of unknown significance persisted in 23 patients. Twenty-seven patients (22%) had no response or progressive disease after transplantation. Probabilities of progression-free and overall survival at 3 years were 38% (95% confidence interval, 28% to 48%) and 50% (95% confidence interval, 39% to 60%), respectively. In multivariate analysis, "B" symptoms at diagnosis and poor performance score at transplantation were adverse prognostic factors for outcome. CONCLUSION: Autotransplants should be considered for patients with Hodgkin's disease who do not achieve complete remission with conventional therapy. (+info)
Stimulation of autologous blood lymphocytes by malignant lymphoma cells and homogenates.
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The blastogenic response to autologous blood lymphocytes to whole-cell suspensions and to homogenates obtained from malignant lymphoma tissue has been investigated. Spleens were obtained from patients in whom laparotomy was performed for staging of malignant lymphoma. Cell suspensions prepared from tumour nodules were treated with mitomycin C and allowed to react with separated autologous blood lymphocytes for 6 days. Lymphocyte stimulation was measured by liquid scintillation counting after exposure to 3H-TdR. Cultures were also prepared in which autologous lymphocytes were treated with spleen tumour homogenate. Control experiments used spleens from staging procedures in which no tumour deposits were present, and normal spleens removed incidentally during other operations. In the controls, the uptake of TdR was never more than twice that of unstimulated lymphocytes. Greater degrees of lymphocyte stimulation were seen in 6 out of 14 patients, using whole tumour cells, and in 7 out of 16 patients, using tumour homogenates. The results indicate an antigenic difference between tumour and host cells, and suggest that lymphocytes can react to a tumour-associated antigen. (+info)