Autologous transplantation in relapsed and refractory Hodgkin's disease.

The current data support the use of high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) as standard procedure for the majority of patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) relapsing or progressing after combination chemotherapy. Prognostic factors reflecting unfavourable prognostic features of the disease as well as resistance to conventional salvage therapy have been identified. Preliminary data suggests a high efficacy of high-dose sequential chemotherapies in these patients. An ongoing randomized trial is comparing standard HDCT versus sequential HDCT in patients with relapsed HD.