Early results evaluating the efficacy and toxicity of adriamycin, vincristine and etoposide Ave in the management of childhood hodgkin's disease

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to evaluate efficacy and toxicity of adriamycin, vincristine and etoposide in the management of childhood Hodgkin's disease as a salvage and first line therapy as well as limiting the use of involved field radiotherapy to partial responders to avoid unnecessary complications of radiotherapy children. Thirty-six patients with Hodgkin's disease were included in this study, twenty- four had no previous treatment and twelve were previously treated with either C-MOPP or Chl-VPP [five of them had refractory disease and the remaining seven attained a complete remission but relapsed later]. All patients were treated with adriamycin 30 mg/m2, vincristine 1.4 mg/m2 and etoposide 100 mg/m2 D1 and D15 repeated every 28 days for six cycles. Partial responders [PR] were subjected to a field radiation treatment after three cycles of chemotherapy [20 Gy/ten treatments/two weeks]. At the end of the six cycles of chemotherapy, all patients were in a complete remission [CR]. All the previously untreated patients were in a complete remission after a median follow up of 15.5 months. The relapse free survival in previously treated patients was 58.3% after a median follow up of 14 months. The relapse free survival for the whole group was 86.7% after a median follow up of 15 months