Hodgkin lymphoma

Abstract

Hodgkin lymphoma typically presents as a painless mass and can be subclassified into classical and nodular lymphocyte-predominant forms, each with characteristic age of incidence peaks. Most patients who develop Hodgkin lymphoma can now be cured. In view of this, initial treatment can be adapted to disease response demonstrated on interim positron emission tomography/computed tomography. This enables patients with good-risk disease to benefit from early attenuation of therapy (to limit the risks of long-term treatment-associated complications) while maintaining treatment efficacy, and patients with poor-risk disease to benefit from early treatment escalation. A minority of patients are either refractory to or relapse after first-line therapy, but novel agents are overcoming chemotherapy resistance. Furthermore, the incorporation of these new treatments in the initial therapy heralds improvements in tolerability of treatment and reductions in risk of early progressive disease.