Purpose: To assess the incidence and outcome of secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD).
Patients and methods: Between 1981 and 1998, the GHSG conducted three trial generations for early, intermediate, and advanced HD involving a total of 5,411 patients (called HD1 through HD9).
Results: A total of 46 patients with secondary AML/MDS were identified. The median age at diagnosis of leukemia was 47 years (range, 22 to 79 years). Primary therapy was as follows: radiotherapy alone (n = 4); doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD; n = 1); cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (COPP)/ABVD or similar (n = 30); bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (BEACOPP) baseline (n = 2); and BEACOPP escalated (n = 9). Twelve patients developed AML/MDS after salvage therapy, including four patients who developed AML/MDS after high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell transplantation. Thirty-six of the secondary malignancies were AML, and 10 malignancies were MDS. After a median observation time of 55 months, incidence of secondary AML/MDS was 1%. Treatment for secondary AML/MDS was as follows: cytarabine (Ara-C)-containing regimens (6-thioguanin, cytarabine, daunorubicin [TAD]/high-dose cytarabine, mitoxantrone [HAM], HAM, Ida-Ara-C (idarubicin + Ara-C), Ida-Flag (idarubicin, fludarabin, Ara-C, G-CSF), and idarubicin, cytarabine, etoposide [ICE]+HAM; n = 11), TAD-chemotherapy (n = 5), other regimens (n = 3), no treatment or supportive care (n = 24), palliative oral chemotherapy (n = 3), and allogeneic stem cell transplantation (n = 9). After 24 months of observation, no difference in freedom from treatment failure and overall survival (2% and 8%, respectively) was observed in patients who developed AML or MDS.
Conclusion: The prognosis of patients with secondary AML/MDS after primary HD is poor. Thus, emphasis should be made to improve initial treatment in an attempt to prevent this complication.