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The Management of Older Patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma

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Hodgkin Lymphoma

Part of the book series: Hematologic Malignancies ((HEMATOLOGIC))

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Abstract

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) in older patients, commonly defined as age ≥ 60 years, is a disease entity in which survival rates have historically been significantly lower compared with younger patients. Additionally, older HL patients appear to have different disease biology compared with younger patients including increased incidence of mixed cellularity histology and EBV-related disease, and they usually present with advanced-stage disease. For prognostication of older patients, several studies have documented the significance of comorbidities and functional status as well as the importance of achieving initial complete remission. Altogether, treatment for older HL patients should be applied with curative intent for all disease stages, while caution should be given to serious treatment-related toxicities, including treatment-related mortality especially for frail patients. The inclusion of anthracycline therapy appears important, while bleomycin-containing regimens (e.g., ABVD) may be associated with prohibitive pulmonary toxicity and intensive therapies such as BEACOPP are too toxic. Finally, newer regimens for older HL patients integrating novel therapeutic agents into frontline treatment have recently emerged as effective and tolerable options. In this review, we discuss the epidemiology, biology, disease characteristics, prognostication, and current treatment strategies for older HL patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital of Cologne, Köln (Cologne), Germany

    Boris Böll

  2. Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

    Andrew M. Evens

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  1. Boris Böll
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  2. Andrew M. Evens
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, Köln, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Andreas Engert

  2. Lymphoma Service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Anas Younes

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Böll, B., Evens, A.M. (2020). The Management of Older Patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma. In: Engert, A., Younes, A. (eds) Hodgkin Lymphoma. Hematologic Malignancies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32482-7_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32482-7_16

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