Radiation therapy for early stage Hodgkin's disease: Australasian patterns of care

Long‐term outcome after radiotherapy alone for lymphocyte‐predominant Hodgkin lymphoma

“…Some patients have been included in previous series. [17][18][19][20] Staging was according to the Ann Arbor system. 21 If involvement of a site was ambiguous, then it was coded as uninvolved, uncertain stage was coded as the lower of two possible stages, and B symptoms were coded as present only if they were unequivocal on chart review.…”

The Australasian Radiation Oncology Lymphoma Group: An Evolving Role

“…The first publications reflected efforts to gain an understanding of patterns of practice and the desire to develop consensus in the technical parameters of that treatment. The survey of patterns of practice 1 was the largest study of its type published and suggested that the mantle was the gold standard for radiotherapy treatment of early Hodgkin’s disease in Australasia up until that time. To ensure that all centres were providing a technically similar treatment, a phantom was purpose‐built and transported around Australasia to compare techniques.…”

Quality assurance: Hodgkin’s disease and beyond

“…A further point of interest to emerge from the PCS is that the adequacy of margin rate had improved from 64% in 1973 in selected centres to 92% nationwide at the time the 1983 survey was undertaken 6 . The closest we have come to such studies in Australasia is the patterns of care study by AROLG 7 . A retrospective review of 820 patients with supradiaphragmatic early stage Hodgkin’s disease treated with radiation alone revealed that the 10‐year disease‐free rate (69%) and overall survival (79%) were comparable with that of the international database for Hodgkin’s disease.…”

“…Despite the fact that major deficiencies continue to exist in the provision of adequate radiation oncology services, 9 there have been a number of positive initiatives which have been taken at various levels. Examples of these include the intercentre dosimetric studies using anthropomorphic phantoms (Hodgkin’s disease, 10 head and neck and prostate cancers 11 ), the patterns of care studies into Hodgkin’s disease, 7 the lead that has been taken by the radiation oncology advisory group of the National Breast Cancer Centre in developing consensus guidelines for the radiotherapeutic management of breast cancer, and the firm stand that the Trans‐Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG) has taken in ensuring that quality assurance audits are an integral part of all clinical trials that are carried out under its auspices. But there is still more ground that needs to be covered.…”