title: Current treatment strategies in early stage Hodgkin's disease.
abstract: Treatment of Hodgkin's disease (HD) is strictly dependent on stage. Historically, early stage HD included the limited stages I, II, and IIIA (according to the Cotsworth modification of the Ann Arbor classification), whereas advanced HD included stage III with B symptoms and stage IV. It was observed that early stage HD with certain clinical risk factors had a significantly worse outcome. As a consequence, several studies defined these patients as suffering from early stage unfavorable (or intermediate stage) HD, demanding a more aggressive treatment.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, Joseph-Stelzmann-Str 9, 50924 Cologne, Germany. andreas.josting@uni-koeln.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Josting
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Diehl
mesh_terms: D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans