ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Recently, in the diagnostics and treatment of Hodgkin's disease significant developments have occurred. AIM: To summarize the clinical and histological data of patients with Hodgkin's disease, treated at the 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, University of Debrecen between 1995-2004. In 2006 January, the mean follow-up was 69 (12-132) months. METHODS: Patients data was analyzed by using SPSS statistical software. RESULTS: The mean age of the 163 patients at the diagnosis was 36 years (14-75), with bimodal age distribution, the most frequent disease subtype was mixed-cell Hodgkin's disease (48.5%). 41.1% of the patients was at early stage, 15.7% had the worst prognosis, while 28.8% had bulky tumor. 7 patients had radiotherapy, 63 had chemotherapy, while at 92 patients combined modality treatment was used. 61.6% of radiotherapies were involved field, 61 patients received cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisolone, adriamycine, bleomycin, vinblastine, 87 adriamycine, bleomycin, vinblastine, 7 had other chemotherapies. As the response to the primary treatment 146 complete, 10 partial remission occurred, while 6 patients showed no response. 10 patients with partial remission and 5 non-responders were continually treated. 27 patients with complete remission had relapse, while 15 had high dose treatment with autologous peripheral stem cell transplantation. During the follow-up 18 patients died, 11 due to the lymphoma progression, or as the result of treatment, 6 had secondary malignancies, 1 due to other reasons. The 10-year prognosed overall survival was 83% (in details: early, advanced, favourable vs. unfavourable: 100% vs. 87.8%, 88.9% vs. 41.6%), the event free survival was 70% (82.6% vs. 70.8%, 64.5% vs. 0%). CONCLUSION: The treatment results of our Hodgkin's disease patients improved, additionally we showed that patients with early stage favourable disease the treatment toxicity should be reduced, while patients with advanced, unfavourable prognosis (10% of all patients) aggressive primary treatment should be used even with more severe side effects and complications.
