Radiation therapy in clinical stage I and II Hodgkin's disease

A review of the Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto, Canada) experience over the last 20 years in treating clinically staged patients with stage I and II Hodgkin's disease was performed to analyse the impact of patient selection and extended field radiation on relapse and survival. Of the 878 patients with stage I and II Hodgkin's disease, 521 with clinical stages I and II received radiation alone as the initial treatment. The actuarial survival for all stage I and II patients was 85.1% at 5 years and 76.2% at 10 years, and for clinically stages patients treated with radiation alone, 87.2 and 77.6%, respectively. The relapse-free rate (RFR) for all clinical stage I and II patients treated with radiotherapy (RT) alone was 70.1% at 5 years and 65.8% at 10 years. Significant prognostic factors for RFR and survival included age, stage and histology. In addition, the extent of radiation was identified as an independent prognostic factor for survival as well as for relapse. (Author)