Hodgkin's Lymphoma Outcome: A Retrospective Study from Three Tertiary Centers in Saudi Arabia

Background: Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) demonstrates considerable clinicopathologic variations in different parts of the world. Prompted by the limited availability of data particularly the long-term outcome of HL in developing countries, we carried out this retrospective data analyses.

Methods: A retrospective review of eligible adult HL patients managed at three tertiary centers in Saudi Arabia between January 1997 to December 2012.

Results: The review included 340 patients with median age of 26 years (range15-82). 53% of patients were male, 74% had an advanced stage, 19% had bulky disease, and 70% had low to intermediate risk according to Hasenclever index. Nodular sclerosis was the most common histological subtype (59%). ABVD was given to 92% and radiotherapy to 43%. Response to initial therapy was complete, partial, and disease progression was reported in 91%, 5%, and 2 % of patients, respectively. At a median follow-up of 50 months, the actuarial freedom from treatment-failure at 5-year was 74%, and with an overall survival of 91%. Multivariate analysis showed that advanced disease stage and high-risk international prognostic index independently projected an adverse outcome.

Conclusion: This study confirms that our patients population demonstrated a comparable outcome to that reported from developed countries.