Successful Treatment in Children with Hodgkin Lymphoma in Greece; A 20-Year Experience in a Single Institution

During the last 30 years, combined chemotherapy regimens with radiotherapy or not significantly improved the prognosis for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. We retrospectively studied 58 children (35 boys and 23 girls) with Hodgkin lymphoma who were treated at our institution during the period 1987–2006 and we correlated age, sex, stage, histology, and therapy with the outcome of patients. Of our patients, 9 children were 8 years old or younger. Nodular sclerosis was the predominant histology subtype (69%), whereas 26 patients (45%) had advanced disease (stage III or IV). Chemotherapy (CT) with various drug combinations, according to the period of treatment plus low-dose involved field radiation therapy (IFRT), was used in all patients. Five children experienced relapse and in 3 other patients second or third malignancies were documented. The overall survival was found to be 98%. No factors related to the outcome could be detected. The prognosis of children with Hodgkin lymphoma is excellent with CT combined with low dose IFRT but in long-time survivors late effects of the combined modality treatment are still issues of major concern. Longer followup of a greater number of patients is necessary to detect prognostic factors related to the outcome of children with Hodgkin lymphoma and to identify some patients who would be treated without radiation.