Syncytial Variant of Nodular Sclerosing Hodgkin’s Disease.

Background: Syncytial Variant is a subtype of nodular sclerosis Hodgkin’s disease (NSHD), reported to occur in younger patients (median age 25 years) who typically present with advanced disease and systemic symptoms.

Objectives: To evaluate the pretreatment characteristics and outcomes of NSHD patients diagnosed with syncytial variant (SV), compared to other NSHD patients without this histology (non-SV).

Methods: This is a retrospective medical chart review of all cases of NSHD seen at one institution over 2 decades. Pretreatment patient characteristics and outcomes data were analyzed.

Results: Of 63 patients with NSHD, 10 (16%) had SV histology. In contrast to previous reports, a trend for older age was observed for patients with SV (median 35 years), compared to patients with non-SV (median 27 years) (p=0.545). No differences in the distribution of B-symptoms or stage were observed between the two groups. Median recurrence-free survival was 37 months for SV cases, compared to 79 months for non-SV cases (p=0.046). Median overall survival was 38 months for SV, compared to 81 months for non-SV patients (p=0.05).

Conclusion: No significant differences were observed in pretreatment patient characteristics between SV and non-SV cases. However, we did observe a significantly worse recurrence-free and overall survival for SV patients, compared to non-SV cases. This is a limited retrospective study at a single institution and not all patients had received the same treatment. Therefore, further studies are needed to confirm these findings.