title: Current clinical trials for the treatment of adult advanced-stage Hodgkin's disease: GELA experiences. Groupe d'Etudes des Lymphomes de l'Adulte.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The optimal treatment for patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease (HD) responding to initial chemotherapy (CT) and an intensive salvage therapy for those who fail to respond completely after initial treatment were evaluated prospectively.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Groupe d'etudes des Lymphomes de l'Adulte H89 trial compared two cycles of CT with (sub)total nodal irradiation (RT) as consolidation treatments for patients with stage IIIB/IV HD with a complete response (CR) or good partial response (PR) after six cycles of CT. Early salvage therapy, including intensified cytoreductive CT and high-dose CT with autologous stem-cell transplantation, was integrated into the trial for patients who had failed to respond completely or relapsed after initial treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study does not demonstrate any advantage of RT over CT as consolidation treatment at the time of CT-induced CR or good PR. Early intensive therapy improves the outcomes of patients with PR and those who relapsed with unfavourable factors. This strategy remains unsatisfactory for patients with primary refractory disease and chemoresistant disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on first intensification of conventional-dose CT, in the next trial (EORTC-GELA Intergroup Study), four escalated bleomycin-etoposide-doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide-procarbazine-prednisone (BEACOPP) followed by four baseline BEACOPP are compared with the eight doxorubicin-bleomycin-vinblastine-dacarbazine standard with no RT for patients who achieve CR/CR-uncertain after initial CT.
authors.affiliation: Service d'Hématologie, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France. ferme@igr.fr
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferme
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mounier
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diviné
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D016879:Salvage Therapy