title: Hodgkin lymphoma in very young children: Clinical characteristics and outcome of treatment.
abstract: In developed nations, Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is rare in <5-year olds and represent a minority in developing countries. Little is reported about the biology and behavior of these very young patients compared with older children. 18.75% of our pediatric HL patients (0 - 14 years) were <5 years at diagnosis. This group had more boys, similar incidence of B-symptoms and stage distribution, less mediastinal involvement and bulky disease, and more mixed cellularity subtype than older children. Treatment included chemotherapy (CT; n = 55), combined modality therapy (CMT; n = 12) and XRT only (n = 2). Ten-year EFS and OS was 81.5% and 90.4%, respectively, versus 75.5% and 90.5% for older children (p > 0.5). A trend toward better survival was seen with CMT, using very LD-XRT, than with CT (OS 100% vs. 86.4%[p = 0.3]; EFS 90.9% vs. 81.0%[p = 0.4]). Although CT could be effective in a subset of LR patients, LD-XRT may be needed to effectively treat most of these patients. This dose reduction may reduce XRT-related toxicity, which can be significant in very young children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Asim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Belgaumi
authors.forename: Amani
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Al-Kofide
authors.forename: Nicey
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.forename: Rubina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jamil-Malik
authors.forename: Yasser
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Khafaga
authors.forename: Rajeh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sabbah
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome