Stage IIB Hodgkin's disease: the Stanford experience.

Between 1968 and 1982, 126 patients with pathologic stage (PS) IIB Hodgkin's disease were treated at Stanford University with either irradiation alone or irradiation combined with chemotherapy. Actuarial survival and freedom from relapse rates at 10 years for the overall group were 81% and 74% respectively, with no statistically significant difference between the treatment approaches. The impact of the severity and number of constitutional (B) symptoms, as defined by the Ann Arbor Conference, was analyzed. Patients who presented with all three B symptoms had significantly poorer survival and freedom from relapse compared with those patients with only one or two B symptoms (for survival differences, P = .005 and .007; for freedom from relapse differences, P = .002 and .04). Male sex was the only other prognostic factor that correlated with a poor outcome. At 10 years, the survival rate was 66% for males v 84% for females (P = .01), and the freedom from relapse rate was 75% for males v 89% for females (P = .02). The presence of extralymphatic sites of involvement, age greater than 40, or involvement of greater than three lymphoid sites had no significant adverse effect on either freedom from relapse or survival. Patients with large mediastinal masses treated with irradiation alone had a 10-year freedom from relapse rate of 54% v 81% for those treated with combined-modality therapy (P = .15), but there was no significant difference in survival rates (85% for irradiation alone v 71% for combined modality therapy). Treatment recommendations for stage IIB Hodgkin's disease are discussed.