Multidisciplinary treatment of advanced Hodgkin's disease by an alternating chemotherapeutic regimen of MOPP/ABDV and low-dose radiation therapy restricted to originally bulky disease.

Overview

Ninety-one evaluable patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease (patients with stages IIB, IIIB, or IV disease and patients with IIIA disease who were greater than 35 years old or had mixed cellularity or lymphocyte depletion histology) received chemotherapy with MOPP and ABDV given in alternating months; radiation therapy (RT) (2000 rad in 2 weeks) was given during Month 5 of therapy to the previously untreated patients through ports that were limited to the originally bulky disease. The complete remission rates observed were: 88% in previously untreated patients, 69% in patients who had had prior RT but minimal chemotherapy, and 50% in patients who had had prior heavy chemotherapy. The actuarial relapse-free survival rates at 4 years, for patients who had complete remission, are: previously untreated, 84%; prior RT, 70%; and prior heavy chemotherapy, 30%. The total actuarial survival rates at 5 years for all 118 patients, evaluable and nonevaluable, who were entered in the study, are: previously untreated, 80%, prior RT, 57%; and prior heavy chemotherapy, 40%.