Hodgkin's lymphoma in children and adolescents in Belarus Republic: 23-year survival rate of 606 pediatric patients

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of treatment outcomes of pediatric patients with classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) in the Republic of Belarus over more than a 20-year period. Patients aged 0 to 18 years with HL received therapy according to the DALHD-90(m) protocol. Therapy modifications involved the use of systemic chemotherapy according to the OPPA regimen (vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone and doxorubicin) for patients of both sexes and dose-reduced involved-field radiotherapy (20 Gy) for patients with early or intermediate stage HL. The aim of our study was to analyze the survival and clinical characteristics of pediatric patients with HL. The study was approved by the Independent Ethics Committee and the Scientific Council of Belarusian Research Center for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus. The analysis included 606 patients with HL, who had received treatment at the Belarusian Research Center for Pediatric Oncology, Hematology and Immunology from January 1, 1998 until December 31, 2020. The median age was 15.3 years. At 23 years, the event-free survival of the study patients was 85 ± 2%, the overall survival was 93 ± 1%, and the cumulative recurrence rate was 10 ± 1.3%. The long-term treatment results of pediatric patients with HL in the Republic of Belarus indicate that the protocol therapy is highly effective and can achieve outcomes that are equivalent to those in countries with a developed healthcare system. The applied therapeutic strategy demonstrates clinical efficacy in stage I–III HL. About 15% of patients with advanced HL (stage IV) constitute the main target group for which a search for new treatment approaches improving treatment outcomes is required.