Hematologic neoplasia in patients treated for Hodgkin's disease

The authors studied 680 patients with Hodgkin's disease, treated from 1968, through 1975, to determine the risk of development of hematologic neoplasia. Six cases of leukemia occurred in patients in clinical remission, one 7.5 years after diagnosis. Two additional cases occurred in patients with active Hodgkin's disease. No cases were seen in 320 patients treated with radiotherapy alone or in 30 treated with chemotherapy alone. A single case of subacute leukemia occurred in a patient treated initially with radiation therapy and colloidal gold. The actuarial probability of development of leukemia at five and seven years is 1.5 and 2.0 per cent for the entire group and 2.9 and 3.9 per cent for the 330 patients treated with combined radiation and chemotherapy. The median survival after diagnosis is four months, with no patient living beyond six months.