title: Salvage therapy of progressive and recurrent Hodgkin's disease: results from a multicenter study of the pediatric DAL/GPOH-HD study group.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate a salvage therapy (ST-HD-86) for patients with progressive and relapsed Hodgkin's disease after primary treatment in the pediatric DAL/GPOH studies. The essential chemotherapeutic regimens were ifosfamide, etoposide, and prednisone (IEP) and doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD).
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred seventy-six patients with progression (n = 51) or first relapse (n = 125) were enrolled by 67 centers. The median time from initial diagnosis to progression/relapse was 1.1 year (range, 0.1 to 15.3 years), and the patients' median age was 14.7 years (range, 4.3 to 24.5 years). Salvage chemotherapy consisted of two to three cycles of IEP alternating with one to two cycles of ABVD supplemented in part by one to two cycles of cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone or lomustine (CCNU), etoposide, and prednimustine. Radiotherapy was given to involved areas using individualized doses. In the 1990s, additional high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell transplantation (SCT) was introduced for patients with unfavorable prognosis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) after 10 years are 62% and 75%, respectively (SE, 4% each). Of 176 patients, 73 suffered second events. The risk-factor analysis revealed the time to progression/relapse as the strongest prognostic factor (P = .0001). Patients with progression have an inferior outcome (DFS, 41%; OS, 51%), whereas patients with late relapse (> 12 months after end of therapy) do well (DFS, 86%; OS, 90%), although none of them received SCT in second remission.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The result can be considered favorable. Whereas the salvage strategy for progressive disease has to be optimized further, it is possible to reduce intensity and avoid SCT in late relapses after Hodgkin's disease in childhood/adolescence.
authors.affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Münster, Kinderklinik, Pädiatrische Hämatologie und Onkologie, Albert-Schweitzer-Strasse 33, D-48129 Münster, Germany. schellon@uni-muenster.de
authors.forename: Günther
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schellong
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dörffel
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Claviez
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Körholz
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: Hans-G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Scheel-Walter
authors.forename: Jos P M
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bökkerink
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Riepenhausen
authors.forename: Heike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lüders
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pötter
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rühl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001761:Bleomycin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003606:Dacarbazine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016879:Salvage Therapy; D014747:Vinblastine / Q000008:administration & dosage
chemical_list: D001761:Bleomycin; D014747:Vinblastine; D003606:Dacarbazine; D004317:Doxorubicin