Early intensive therapy with autotransplantation for high-risk Hodgkin's disease

Current treatment of Hodgkin's disease

In spite of the fact that Hodgkin's disease (HD) remains still an enigma its management and treatment yield a cure rate of about 80% of all patients. However, this management has two limits: on one side favourable cases which should not be overtreated because of unacceptable side-effects, and on the other side very unfavourable cases which should be treated differently because of a very high rate of failure and/or relapse. Then it becomes necessary to precise as thoroughly as possible these two limits in order to choose the adequate treatment for the patient. Prognostic factors based on patient and disease characteristics allow a relatively exact classification of favourable and unfavourable cases. This distinction in two prognostic groups has therapeutic implications in terms of chemotherapy (regimen, duration) and radiotherapy (extension, doses). Other specific situations have to be considered, e.g. pediatric cases, pregnancy, old age and HIV-infected patients who need an adapted management according to very different situations.

Retrospective assessment of quality of life and treatment outcome in patients with Hodgkin's disease from 1969 to 1994

We determined the current quality of life (QoL) of patients with Hodgkin's disease treated at the Innsbruck University Hospital between 1969 and 1994 at a mean time of 9.1 +/- 7.0 years after their initial treatment. Further aims of our study were to assess potential differences in objective treatment outcome and QoL between patients treated with chemo-, radio- or combined modality therapy and those enrolled in randomised clinical trials or treated according to standard procedures. The QLQ-C30, a health-related and validated self-report questionnaire developed by the Study Group on Quality of Life of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) was mailed to a cohort of 194 survivors out of a total of 225 patients with Hodgkin's disease; 126 of them (64.9%) returned the completed questionnaire. The 5- and 10-year overall survival rates for the total group of 225 patients were 94.3% and 84.9%, respectively. Irrespective of stage, higher relapse-free survival rates were observed in patients receiving combined modality treatment (P = 0.025). Five-year relapse-free survival rates were 96.6% for patients enrolled in clinical trials and 82.8% for patients treated outside of randomised studies (P = 0.037 in univariate and P = 0.064 in multivariate analysis). Patients treated with combined modality regimens had reduced QoL scores in comparison with those treated with either radiation or chemotherapy alone, but QoL parameters did not differ between patients enrolled in clinical trials and those treated according to standard procedures. Patients with Hodgkin's disease had an excellent long-term prognosis and very high QoL scores a mean of 9.1 years after treatment of their disease. The improved relapse-free survival rates achieved by combined modality regimens must be carefully weighed against the accompanying reduced QoL, since lower relapse rates did not translate into a survival advantage.

Early intensive therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation in high-risk Hodgkin's disease: long-term follow-up in 35 cases

Thirty-five adult patients with high-risk HD (HD) defined by (1) Ann Arbor stage IV or bulky nodal disease (tumor/thorax ratio > 0.45) and (2) no or partial response (PR) (< 75%) to the initial 3 courses of ABVD, received an early intensive therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Thirty patients were considered as partial responders and 5 as refractory to initial chemotherapy. Conditioning regimen consisted of chemotherapy alone (CBV in 11 patients before 1993, BEAM in 13 patients since 1993) followed by adjuvant radiotherapy: 40 Gy) on the initial sites of bulky disease, or 12 Gy total body irradiation plus 120 mg/kg cyclophosphamide in 11 patients with disseminated extra-nodal disease. All 30 patients in PR at the time of ASCT experienced prolonged complete remission (CR). One patient died in CR from an acute myocardial infarction 48 months after ASCT. Four out of the 5 patients with refractory disease at the time of ASCT experienced rapid progression of HD leading to death in 3 cases. After 6 years of CR post-ASCT, the last refractory patient died of myelodysplastic syndrome diagnosed 2 years after intensive therapy. With a median follow-up for surviving patients of 51 months (range: 11-111), the cumulative probability of 8-year overall survival is 75.6% for the entire group of patients, 94.1% for the chemosensitive ones, and 0% for the primary refractory (P < .0001). The cumulative probability of 8-year event-free survival is 79.9% for the entire group of patients, 94.1% for the chemosensitive ones, and 0% for the primary refractory (P < .0001). We conclude that early intensive therapy with ASCT is feasible in patients with high-risk HD and induces a high cure rate in chemosensitive patients. In primary refractory patients, new therapeutic approaches are warranted.

Intensive therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation for Hodgkin's disease in first relapse after combination chemotherapy

Data from a number of transplant centers has shown that several intensive therapy regimens, supported by autologous stem cell transplantation, have the capability to produce durable responses in a proportion of patients with Hodgkin's disease progressive after combination chemotherapy. Although many questions regarding the optimal use of autotransplantation remain unanswered, the issue of the preferred timing at which to apply transplantation is of critical importance in planning therapeutic strategies for patients with this disease. This paper will focus on the timing options for autotransplantation in Hodgkin's disease. In the absence of a formal Phase III study comparing conventional salvage therapy versus autotransplantation in first relapse patients, the encouraging results from our center and others support the use of transplantation at the time of first relapse after combination chemotherapy. Non-relapse mortality is low in this setting, and the primary problem has been recurrent disease despite transplantation. Risk factors for both disease recurrence, as well as for the probability of progression-free survival, can be defined based on biologic features present at the time of first relapse after chemotherapy, and may provide a basis for improving the current transplant results for first relapse patients. Prolonged follow-up will be important to define the incidence and risk of late toxicities in autografted patients.

Twelve years experience with high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation for high-risk Hodgkin's disease patients in first remission after MOPP/ABVD chemotherapy

High-dose therapy followed by autografting can cure patients with aggressive Hodgkin's disease (HD) refractory or with early relapse to first-line combination chemotherapy. On the other hand, the eradication of the disease is rarely achieved in heavily pretreated patients. It has been suggested that patients with HD with very high risk characteristics at diagnosis, often relapse despite appropriate therapy with 7-8 drugs combination. Thus it seems to us that such patients are potential candidates for early autografting during first remission. Twelve years ago, we initiated a pilot study to investigate whether patients with very high risk characteristics, would benefit from early autografting. The application of early autografting was compared with our historical group of patients in complete remission after receiving MOPP/ABVD, who had the same negative prognostic characteristics, refused autografting and who did not receive other treatment after achieving complete remission. Among the 22 consecutive patients entered into the pilot study and autografted, 18 are alive and 17 (77%) remain alive in unmaintained remission at a median of 86 months. One patient (4%) died of interstitial pneumonitis in the transplantation group. Only 8/24 (33%) patients, who did not receive an autograft, are currently alive and disease free at a median of 89 months. In conclusion, the early application of autografting appears to improve the outcome in patients with very high risk HD who achieved remission with MOPP/ABVD.

High-dose therapy and autologous bone marrow transplantation in first complete or partial remission for poor prognosis Hodgkin's disease

We report the experience of three French centres which evaluated high-dose therapy (HDT) as consolidation therapy for poor prognosis Hodgkin's disease (HD). From March 1986 to April 1990, 23 consecutive patients with poor prognosis stage IV HD underwent HDT followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) after achieving either complete remission (CR1) or good partial response (GPR1) (reduction mass> 75%). The median age was 31 years (range 18 to 55 years), 14 were male. All patients except one initially had at least 2 poor prognosis factors such as: systemic symptoms (n = 19), bulky tumor (n = 16), more than one extranodal site (n = 9), bone marrow involvement (n = 5), lymphocyte count < or = 1.10(9)/1 (n = 8) and biological stage B (n = 21). All patients had previously been treated with alternating MOPP/ABVD. Ten patients were in GPR1 and 13 in CR1 before transplant. The conditioning regimens were: CBV (n = 17), BEAM (n = 5), BEAC (n = 1) followed by bone marrow rescue. Radiotherapy was introduced just before the conditioning regimen for 6 patients or after ABMT for 5 patients. Nine of 10 patients in GPR1 achieved CR after ABMT but one died early of treatment-related toxicity. Five of 22 patients who were in CR posttransplant, relapsed (3, 4, 4, 18, 36 months). Seventeen patients remain alive in continuous CR with a median follow-up of 60 months (range: 30-100 months). The overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) projected at 5 years are 92% and 77% respectively. Consolidation by HDT and ABMT proved to be well tolerated. An international trial is currently underway to attempt to demonstrate a clear benefit on survival for this subset of poor prognosis HD patients.

Update of results of autologous bone marrow transplantation in lymphoma

A substantial proportion of patients with Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma will fail to achieve a complete remission with initial chemotherapy or will relapse after attaining a complete remission. The results of conventional salvage chemotherapy regimens for these patients have been disappointing. This has led to the use of high-dose therapy regimens which can be administered with the use of hematopoietic rescue (bone marrow transplantation). The use of bone marrow transplantation for patients with relapsed and refractory lymphoma has increased rapidly. Data from the North American Autologous Bone Marrow Transplant Registry indicate that approximately 40% of autologous bone marrow transplants are being performed for patients with lymphoma. Several large series of transplantation for Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma have been published in the last two years. The results of these series vary widely due to differences in patient selection and pre-transplant prognostic factors. Differences in supportive care and preparative regimens prior to transplant may also account for the wide range of outcomes reported after transplantation. Although these differences make it impossible to compare results of one series with another, it is clear that a significant proportion of patients can achieve long term disease free survival following high dose therapy with marrow transplantation. It is also important, however, to note that this form of therapy can be associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Transplant-related mortality exceeds 20% in some series. However, greater experience, better patient selection, and advances in supportive care, such as hematopoietic growth factors, are allowing many institutions to perform transplantation with mortality rates under 5%.