ABSTRACT
The paper presents the results of a retrospective analysis of the chemoradiotherapy of 393 infant patients with Hodgkin's disease.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols/therapeutic use , Hodgkin Disease/drug therapy , Hodgkin Disease/radiotherapy , Adolescent , Adult , Chemotherapy, Adjuvant/adverse effects , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Infant , Male , Neoplasms, Second Primary/etiology , Radiotherapy Dosage , Radiotherapy, Adjuvant/adverse effects , Retrospective Studies , Survival Analysis , Treatment Outcome , Young AdultABSTRACT
The incidence of secondary malignancies (SM) was studied in a population of 219 patients in late periods (3-29 years) after childhood and adolescence chemoradiotherapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL). SMs were found in 15 (6.8%) patients. These were solid neoplasms located in the irradiated areas in 12 of them, including 4 patients with thyroid cancer and 2 with gastric cancer. All 3 cases of acute leukemia had occurred after chemoradiotherapy performed by extended programs that consisted of a large number of chemotherapy cycles. The detection rate of SM did not significantly depend on the dose of radiation, age at start of treatment, and a child's gender. The findings suggest that there is a need for the maximum concentration of an irradiation beam in the area of thyroid lesion and exposure, for limited cytotoxic therapy programs, and lifetime medical observation of the patients treated for HL in childhood.
