title: Hodgkin's lymphoma in the elderly: the results of 10 years of follow-up.
abstract: Elderly patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma carry a worse prognosis than younger patients because of a higher incidence of advanced stages, a worse performance status and the intolerance of full-dose curative treatment. A retrospective analysis of patients treated at our institution was performed. Our retrospective study summarizes the treatment results for 52 Hodgkin's lymphoma patients aged older than 60 years between 1973 and 1993. These patients were treated with combination of less toxic chemotherapy schedule (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine and prednisone) and/or involved-field radiotherapy. The aim was to maintain an acceptable quality of life in spite of lower remission rate. The 5- and 10-year overall survival rates were 48% and 33%, respectively. We found two independent prognostic factors for overall survival: (i) stage of the disease and (ii) accomplishment of the treatment. Combined modality treatment yielded better results than chemotherapy. Tolerance of the treatment was acceptable. The present study demonstrates that a combination of mild chemotherapy with limited radiotherapy is a feasible way of treating elderly patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Third Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital Královské, Vinohrady, Czech Republic. feltl@fnkv.cz
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Feltl
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vítek
authors.forename: Jirí
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zámecník
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011241:Prednisone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011344:Procarbazine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011379:Prognosis; D011788:Quality of Life; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D014750:Vincristine / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D011344:Procarbazine; D014750:Vincristine; D003520:Cyclophosphamide; D011241:Prednisone