High-dose therapy with autologous transplantation for Hodgkin's disease: the Bologna experience.
OBJECTIVE
In this work we examine the characteristics and outcome of patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) treated with high-dose therapy (HDT) and autologous transplantation at our Institute between 1982 to 2000.


METHODS
A retrospective analysis was performed examining patients' characteristics, prior chemotherapy regimens, pre-transplant disease status, HDT regimen, source of stem cells, time for hematopoietic recovery, complications of transplantation, response rates, overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS).


RESULTS
Ninety-seven patients with HD were treated and had estimated 10-year OS and RFS rates of 32% and 60%, respectively. Disease status (sensitive vs. refractory) before HDT was the most powerful predictive parameter for OS and RFS in both univariate and multivariate analyses. The rate of transplant-related mortality in the whole cohort was only 1% whereas the rate of second malignancies was 3%.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results confirm that HDT with autologous transplantation is associated with a durable RFS in a remarkable proportion of HD patients and that the procedure has a very low global early and late toxicity.
Institute of Hematology and Medical Oncology, L.e A. Seragnoli, University of Bologna, Italy. plzinzo@med.unibo.it
Pier Luigi
PL
Zinzani
Monica
M
Tani
Annalisa
A
Gabriele
Filippo
F
Gherlinzoni
Antonio
A
de Vivo
Paolo
P
Ricci
Giuseppe
G
Bandini
Roberto Massimo
RM
Lemoli
Maria Rosa
MR
Motta
Simonetta
S
Rizzi
Valeria
V
Giudice
Maurizio
M
Zompatori
Vittorio
V
Stefoni
Lapo
L
Alinari
Gerardo
G
Musuraca
Simona
S
Bassi
Roberto
R
Conte
Stefano
S
Pileri
Sante
S
Tura
Michele
M
Baccarani
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002648:Child; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome