Treatment of Early Stage Hodgkin Lymphoma

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is an uncommon lymphoid malignancy which accounts for about 0.5% to 1% of all cancers. In 2010, an estimated 8,490 new cases and 1,320 deaths will occur in the United States (Jemal, Siegel, Xu, et al, 2010). HL incidence appears to be stable over the past few decades, in contrast to the incompletely understood continued increase in frequency of non-Hodgkin lymphomas. HL has a bimodal incidence with most patients diagnosed in the third decade, followed by another peak in adults aged 55 years or older. There has been correlation between incidence of certain histologic sybtypes of HL and age and sex; for example, nodular-sclerosis HL is more common in women and young adults in contrast to mixed cellularity HL which is more common in men and lymphocyte-rich HL which is more common in older males (Correa, O'Conor, Berard, et al, 1973).