Treatment Outcomes and Relative Dose Intensity of Chemotherapy in Slovene Patients With Advanced Hodgkin Lymphoma

This retrospective study was undertaken to investigate the association of relative dose intensity (RDI) with the outcome of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients with advanced stage disease receiving ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) and escalated BEACOPP regimen (bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone). A total of 114 HL patients treated between 2004 and 2013 were enrolled for evaluation. RDI calculations were based on a Hryniuk's model. The association of variables with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) was analysed using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models. The median age of patients was 39 years, majority of patients were males and had stage IV disease. Fifty-four patients received ABVD and 60 received BEACOPP chemotherapy with 24 and 4 deaths, respectively. Patients in BEACOPP group were significantly younger with lower Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) in comparison with ABVD group, making the comparison of groups impossible. In ABVD group, RDI was not significantly associated with OS (p=0.590) or PFS (p=0.354) in a multivariate model where age was controlled. The low number of events prevented the analysis in the BEACOPP group. Patients' age was strongly associated with both OS and PFS: all statistically significant predictors for OS and PFS from univariate analyses (chemotherapy regimen, CCI, RDI) lost its effect in multivariate analyses where age was controlled. Based on our observations, we can conclude that RDI is not associated with the OS or PFS after the age is controlled, neither in all patients combined nor in individual chemotherapy groups.