What are the key management guidelines for treating Hodgkin lymphoma?

FAQ published on January 15, 2014
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Andreas Engert, MD
Professor of Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Oncology
University Clinic of Cologne
Cologne, Germany
What are the key management guidelines for treating Hodgkin lymphoma?

There are guidelines based on regional habits and treatments. There are guidelines in the U.S. There are guidelines here in Europe on different aspects. We just published our guidelines, that is an evidence-based guideline and what is called S3 guidelines on all different aspects of Hodgkin lymphoma. So, depending on where you live in the world, you have the option of looking at different guidelines. If you look at our guidelines and then guidelines from other countries, they might differ, but it would be worthwhile trying to treat patients according to these guidelines. I would say it is more important even to enroll patients into clinical trials or randomized trials because this is the basis for the success in Hodgkin lymphoma, and this contributes to the growing body of evidence knowledge, so that is the best thing to do, and usually, clinical trials have a very high standard and are being checked by many authorities, so you can be sure that this is the best way to really contribute to the knowledge to improve the fear to Hodgkin lymphoma.

I think it is an important point to enroll patients into clinical trials, and clinical trials do not mean that these are end-stage patients. If nothing helps, then a clinical trial; that is a wrong perception. Groups worldwide include patients into Hodgkin trials, and these are patients at early diagnosis. This is a bug of the patients, early diagnosis, early stages, intermediate stages, advanced stages; all these different risk groups have different treatments, and also, there are questions specifically related to the treatment of these different risk groups. So, that is why it is so important to enroll patients into clinical trials and that, by no means, does mean that they are end-stage patients, worn-out patients – no, these are patients with first diagnosis, and the histology is usually confirmed within a clinical trial, so that is another safety issue for patients and the advance in the field in Hodgkin lymphoma is based on the vast number of trials conducted and patients included, for instance, our group has enrolled 18,000 patients into clinical trials, and this is very similar with other groups. So, that is an important measure of quality and also an important thing to do to advance the field to further improve the prognosis and reduce side effects for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma.

Last modified: January 15, 2014
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