Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients: Experience at the ABC Medical School

Abstract

Background: Despite the excellent prognosis for the Hodgkin lymphoma, 20 to 25% patients are refractory and about 30% relapse, requiring further treatment. The rescuing therapy includes aggressive chemotherapy regimens, radiation therapy and hematopoietic stem cells transplantation. Purpose: To describe the experience at FMABC to treat patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who underwent autologous bone marrow transplantation as part of the rescue treatment. Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was performed to analyze the medical records of patients treated in the institution from March 2007 to December 2011.Forty-seven patients with Hodgkin lymphoma were diagnosed and treated at FMABC. From them, 33 (70.2%) were in complete remission, but 14 (29.8%) did not respond or relapsed. Among the 14 patients group, 10 were referred for autologous HSCT in a specialized service at USP, as there is no TMO in our service. Results: The mean time between the relapse and the transplantation was 7.8 months (ranging from 4.9 to 14 months). The transplant conditioning regimen was BEAM in 90% of cases and the stem cells source was the peripheral blood cells in 100%. Ninety percent patients responded (8 CR and 1 PR), with a 88.8% rate OS, 55.6% DFS, but 44.4% relapsed in a 24.05 month follow-up average period (ranging from 8 to 42.7). Conclusion: Despite the favorable OS and DFS, the risk of recurrence and progression of the disease remains an obstacle to be overcome with new therapeutic strategies.