Age at diagnosis does not adversely affect outcome in patients with Hodgkin's Disease (HD) after autologous transplantation

Abstract

e19507 Background: Age at diagnosis is a poor prognostic factor for overall survival after standard therapy for HD. Whether older age is a prognostic factor for outcome after autologous transplantation is not known. We sought to evaluate the effect of older age at diagnosis on transplant outcome. Patients and Methods: All patients with HD undergoing autologous transplantation with BEAM conditioning (BCNU, Etoposide, Cytarabine, and Melphalan) between January 1996 and December 2007 were included in this study. During these 12 years, 248 patients (103 males) underwent autologous transplantation. Seventy two patients (29%) were older than 40 years of age at the time of initial diagnosis. Median age at transplantation was 31 years (range 11–74). At transplantation, 63 (25%) were in complete remission (CR); 148 (60%) were in partial remission (PR); and 37 (15%) had stable (SD) or progressive disease (PD). Forty-six patients (19%) had received more than 3 courses of chemotherapy prior to transplantation. LDH was elevated in 131 (53%). Peripheral blood stem cells were used as stem cell source in 241 (97%) patients. Results: With a median follow up of 48 months (range, 1–143 months), the 48-month overall (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) were 72% (95% CI; 65%-77%) and 57% (95% CI; 50%-63%), respectively. The cumulative incidence of non-relapse mortality at 1 year was 1.6%. The cumulative incidence of secondary MDS or AML was 8%. In univariate analysis, disease status (p<0.001) and number of prior chemotherapy regimens (p=0.007) were the only factors significantly predicting OS. Disease status was the only factor significant (p<0.01) in a multivariate analysis with a hazard ratio of 2.7 (1.1–6.9) and 9.2 (3.4–25) for patients in PR, and SD/PD respectively (CR reference group). Age at diagnosis was not a significant factor (see table ). Conclusions: High-dose chemotherapy and autologous transplantation abrogate the adverse impact of age at diagnosis in patients with HD. [Table: see text] No significant financial relationships to disclose.