10 Treatment sequelae and quality of life

Abstract

Hodgkin's disease is considered a curable disease. The use of appropriate staging techniques and treatment methods has resulted to long-term cause-specific survival rates as high as 90% in early stages, 75% or greater in advanced stages. Long-surviving Hodgkin's disease patients, however, face new problems which have become apparent as greater numbers of successfully treated patients are followed for longer periods of time. These problems mostly concern chronic medical as well as psychosocial complications which can interfere with survivors' quality of life. Specific therapy may result in severe infections, thyroid, cardiovascular, pulmonary, digestive or gonadal dysfunction. It may also result in secondary malignancy which is considered the most serious complication. Because the vast majority of patients who achieve remission will remain symptom-free and do enjoy a normal life, long-term follow-up should concentrate on prevention and early detection of treatment-related complications and of secondary malignancy.