Clinical features and outcomes of 139 Japanese patients with Hodgkin lymphoma.

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a rare subtype of malignant lymphoma in Japan, and there are few reports of HL in Japan in recent years. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical features of 139 patients with HL who were diagnosed and treated at our institution between 1997 and 2011. The median age at diagnosis was 34 years with 83 male. Of these patients, 83 (60 %) were early stage and 56 (40 %) were advanced-stage. Seventy-three patients (88 %) with early stage disease received ABVd followed by irradiation. All of the 56 advanced-stage patients received chemotherapy, mainly ABVd. The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) rates and overall survival rates were 90 and 94 % in patients with early stage disease, and 71 and 90 % in those with advanced-stage disease. The PFS of patients with advanced-stage disease was significantly lower than those with early stage (p = 0.014). In conclusion, the outcomes of Japanese patients with HL in recent years were not improved as compared with the results of previous reports. We confirmed that patients with advanced-stage disease have lower PFS than those with early stage disease. Prospective studies are needed to establish novel treatment strategies to improve the outcome of HL patients, especially those with advanced disease.