Comparison of Patients (Pts) Characteristic and Treatment Outcomes in Lymphocyte-Predominant (LPHD) and Classical Hodgkin’s Disease (cHD): A Report from the German Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group (GHSG).

Introduction: LPHD differs in histological and clinical presentation from cHD. Treatment of LPHD patients (pts) using standard Hodgkin disease (HD) protocols leads to complete remission (CR) in more than 95% of pts. However, differences in terms of relapse rates, survival and freedom from treatment failure (FFTF) between clinical stages of LPHD and cHD pts were suggested by a recent intergroup analysis. To obtain a more comprehensive picture, we reviewed all LPHD-cases registered in the GHSG database and compared patient characteristics and treatment outcome with cHD pts.

Patients and methods: We retrospectively analysed 8298 HD pts treated within the GHSG trials (HD4 to HD12): 394 LPHD pts and 7904 cHD pts. From 394 LPHD pts 63% were in early stage, 16% in intermediate and 21% in advanced stage of disease. Of the 7904 cHD pts analysed, 22% were in early, 39% in intermediate and 39% in advanced stages. 9% of LPHD pts had B symptoms compared to 40% in cHD pts.

Results: 87.5% LPHD pts reached CR/CRu compared to 81.1% cHD pts. 0.3% LPHD pts developed progressive disease (PD) compared to 3.7% cHD. The relapse rate of LPHD pts was very similar to cHD (6.9%). 0.8% LPHD pts and 3.1% cHD had early relapse, 6.9% LPHD pts and 4.2% cHD pts suffered from late relapse. LPHD pts with late relapse were in intermediate stages (12.5%). In contrast, only 3.9% of cHD pts in intermediate stages had late relapses. There were 2.5% secondary malignancies in LPHD and 3.7% in cHD pts. 4.3% LPHD pts and 8.8% cHD pts died. The FFTF rates for LPHD or cHD pts at a median observation of 41 or 48 months, respectively were as follows: early stages 93% vs. 87%, in intermediate stages 87% vs. 85% and in advanced stages 77% vs. 75%. The OS rates for LPHD or cHD pts were 98% vs. 96% for early stages, 94% vs. 93% for intermediate stages and 91% vs. 87% for advanced stages. The multivariate analysis of prognostic and risk factors will be presented.

Conclusion: cHD pts present more frequently with advanced stages and B symptoms compared to LPHD pts. Comparing LPHD and cHD pts we found differences in treatment outcome in respect of CR/CRu, progressive disease and mortality. Surprisingly, there were no differences in terms of relapses. The majority of late relapses in LPHD pts were in intermediate stages. In contrast to previous reports, our data suggest that relapses in LPHD and cHD pts seem to be comparable and not more frequent. Thus new treatment strategy for LPHD pts in intermediate stages should be considered.