Chemotherapy of Hodgkin's disease

Abstract

Radiotherapy has the first priority in planning an appropriate therapeutic program for the patient with Hodgkin's disease but chemotherapy also has acquired an important role. Drugs which have demonstrated therapeutic activity in Hodgkin's disease include: polyfunctional alkylating agents, vinca alkaloids, N‐methylhydrazine, adrenal steroids and actinomycin D. The antimetabolites have been less successful; an irregular and brief effect is reported for methotrexate and generally no benefit at all from 6‐mercaptopurine and 5‐fluorouracil. The indications for drug therapy include: (1) localized Hodgkin's disease in combination with x‐ray therapy; (2) in acute situations when rapid relief of signs or symptoms are necessary and (3) for widespread disease with systemic manifestations. There are no certain guides to the choice of drug or regimen and the therapeutic program in each case must be adapted to the patient and to the treatment modalities available.

Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV)‐associated antibody patterns in malignant lymphoma and leukemia. I. Hodgkin's disease

“…A patient with a history of involvement of lymph nodes on both sides of the diaphragm has been classified as stage 3 even if he had no clinical signs of active disease when the serum was taken. The criteria used for clinical staging were the same as proposed at a conference on HD at Rye, New York, in 1965 (Karnofsky, 1966;Rosenberg, 1966). As seen in Table 111, 20, 14, 8 and 18% of the sera were derived from patients in stages I, 11, 111 and IV, respectively.…”

Splenic and hepatic ultrasound and cytology in canine lymphoma: effects of findings on stage migration and assessment of prognosis

“…Stage allocation based on the extent of a disease is an established method for classification of various neoplastic diseases in humans and animals. 1 It is the basis for prognosis where stage has shown prognostic significance, 2 treatment planning and evaluation of treatment response. 3,4 Furthermore, it is important when comparing clinical trials and for a standardized communication among clinicians.…”

Assessment of Waldeyer's ring in pediatric and adolescent Hodgkin lymphoma patients—Importance of multimodality imaging: Results from the EuroNet‐PHL‐C1 trial

“…However, irradiation of the entire WR will affect many structures of the head and neck like salivary glands, the thyroid and brain‐supplying blood vessels 23 . This increases the risk of sicca syndrome, thyroid cancer, hypothyroidism, or atherosclerosis in later life 1,7 . Guidelines from the International Lymphoma Radiation Oncology Group (ILROG) consider each of the WR subsites as independent and recommend for aggressive non‐HLs of the WR not to irradiate the entire WR after chemotherapy anymore 24 .…”

“…The Waldeyer's ring (WR) is an independent lymphatic region and rarely involved in HL 6,7 . An illustration of the WR anatomy is shown in Figure 1.…”