Hodgkin Lymphoma in adolescents

With the development of an integrated treatment approach, the cure rate and survival of patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL) is now high. Treatment tailored to stage, using chemotherapy, with or without involved field radiotherapy is the standard of care. Paediatric oncologists have been developing treatment regimens to maximise cure rate whilst trying to minimise the associated late side-effects, and cure rates in children are now often greater than 90%. It has been suggested that the outcome of adolescents with HL does not match that of younger children, but published data focusing on this group of patients is scarce. Future treatment strategies may direct the treatment of adolescents with HL away from the current “adult” regimens, and closer to that currently received by children, but prospective randomised trials are required. Rationalisation of both chemotherapy and radiotherapy administered to children and adolescents aims to minimise the risk of significant long-term side effects without sacrificing high cure rates. Infertility, secondary malignancies, cardiac and respiratory morbidity are all significant risks of current combined modality treatment that need to be discussed when obtaining informed consent and may influence the choice of treatment offered or accepted. Monitoring late effects of treatment (both physical and psychological) is especially important in this group of young patients.