Comparative effectiveness of different chemotherapies given to Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma patients: A retrospective study from Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Nodular Lymphocyte Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma (NLPHL) is a rare type of Hodgkin lymphoma. This retrospective study aims to find most efficient chemotherapy that gives high rates of Progression Free Survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). In this study confirmed patients of NLPHL identified from different hospitals from 2011 to 2023. Clinical characteristics were collected from these patients to confirm NLPHL diagnosis. Eighty confirmed NLPHL patients were identified, and their median follow-up was 36 months. The median age of the participants was 35 years with minimum age of 2 years while maximum participant’s age of 70 years in which 26.1% were females while 73.8% were males. It was observed that surgery was the first line treatment given to 18.8% patients before chemotherapy and to 81.3% patients chemotherapy was the first line treatment. Patients’ chemotherapy treatments shows that 57.5% patients received ABVD, 16.3% patients with BEACOPP, while 8.8% patients received CHOP, 17.5% patients were given Rituximab-based or other treatments. According to Ann-Arbor stage*, 16.3% of the patients were of stage I, 36.3% of stage II, 27.5% of stage III and 20.0% of stage IV. Relapse was observed in 35% of the patients after chemotherapy treatment. In this study, the divergent characteristics of NLPHL treatments showed a comparatively good long-term prognosis. Mostly patients showed a good response to first line treatment. In this study, ABVD showed the best chemotherapy treatment with excellent outcomes. The overall survival demonstrated excellent initial survival rates within 5 years.