[Is irradiation of intact ileoinguinal lymph nodes necessary in radiochemotherapy for stage-III Hodgkin's disease?].

ABSTRACT

Data are presented on radiochemotherapy (1-4 cycles of combined therapy+total (TI) or subtotal (STI) irradiation of lymph nodes) given to 120 patients, with stage III Hodgkin's disease, whose ileoinguinal lymph nodes were intact. Analysis of overall survival of patients with stage III Hodgkin's disease showed that 87% of STI patients survived for 10-years as compared with 73% in TI (p=0.07). What is most important is that 10-year relapse-free survival in STI patients (92%) was significantly higher than that in TI (75%) (p=0.01).