Radiation therapy in Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Radiation therapy continues to play a primary role for the definitive treatment of early-stage Hodgkin's disease. Its value as an adjunct for chemotherapy in patients with unfavorable features such as bulky disease is also obvious. The indications for radiation therapy in addition to chemotherapy for patients with advanced-stage disease are less clear. Nevertheless, there is adequate evidence that consolidative irradiation is of benefit in at least a subset of such patients. Future directions in radiation therapy for Hodgkin's disease include efforts to reduce treatment extent (both field size and dose) without compromising disease control; further technological advances in improving planning and treatment equipment, to allow better tumor targeting while minimizing dose to surrounding normal tissue; close follow-up evaluation of patients treated for Hodgkin's disease, which may allow better selection of patients for the different treatment schemes and tailoring therapy according to risks for relapse as well as treatment complications; optimizing a follow-up plan; and implementing preventive measures for long-term complications of treatment. The goal is not only to maximize survival but also to optimize patient quality of life.
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Joint Center for Radiation Therapy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
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D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods