title: Response-adapted radiotherapy in the treatment of pediatric Hodgkin's disease: an interim report at 5 years of the German GPOH-HD 95 trial.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A multinational trial on pediatric Hodgkin's disease (HD) with the aim to reduce the risk of long-term toxicity of combined modality treatment by restricting dose and volume of radiation therapy (RT) while maintaining the excellent treatment results of previous German multicenter trials (DAL-HD82-90).
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients were treated according to stage of disease (CS) and defined risk factors in three treatment groups (TG) with 2, 4, or 6 cycles of combination chemotherapy. When a complete remission (CR) had been achieved, treatment was terminated without RT independent of initial stage or tumor bulk. Patients with a partial remission (PR) of >75% tumor regression were irradiated with 20 Gy using modified involved fields; in the case of PR <75% RT dose was 30 Gy, residual masses >50 mL received 35 Gy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From August 1995 to July 2000 a total of 956 patients have been registered, 830 as trial patients, 39% in TG1, 27% in TG2, 34% in TG3. 827 patients were evaluable by June 2001 with a median follow-up of 38 months. Chemotherapy (CTx) resulted in CR in 22%, PR >75% in 62%, PR <75% in 12%. Event-free survival (EFS) for the entire group is 90% (SD 0.01), for TG1 94%, TG2 91%, and TG3 84%; the overall survival is 97% in Kaplan-Meier-analysis. Relapse-free survival (RFS) is superior for patients with RT after PR (93%) than for those without RT after CR (89%); the difference is significant (p = 0.01) for advanced stages, however not in TG1. Seventy-two events were observed by June 2001: 28 progressions during the initial therapy or within the first 3 months, 38 relapses, 3 second malignancies, three fatal accidents or infections; 18 patients have died.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Treatment results of the GPOH-HD 95 trial are excellent thus far. The reduction of RT dose and volume in PR has not caused a significant impairment of overall and event-free survival in comparison to the previous German trials; however, failure rates are higher in advanced stages when RT is omitted after achieving a CR. It is too early to tell whether the HD 95 protocol will be successful in reducing late toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, Moabit Hospital Berlin, Berlin, Germany. radiotherapie@km-berlin.de
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rühl
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Albrecht
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dieckmann
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lüders
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Marciniak
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schellenberg
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wickmann
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dörffel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015996:Survival Rate