Prognostic Factors and Long-Term Outcome for Patients with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Who Relapse after an Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation.

We have analyzed overall survival (OS-REL), progression-free survival (PFS-REL) and the clinical variables influencing the long-term outcome for patients with Hodgkin′s lymphoma (HL) who relapse after an autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). From 639 patients autografted for HL [383 males (60%) and 256 (40%) females, median age of 30 (1–66) years] reported to the GEL/TAMO Cooperative Group between January/1984 and January/2003, 175 patients (27%) relapsed at a median time of 10 (4 – 125) months [median (range)] after ASCT. They were 97 males (56%) and 78 (44%) females with a median age of 28 (10 – 66) [median (range)] years at transplantation. Sixty-three patients were autografted in complete remission, 73 in sensitive relapse and 31 in resistant relapse. One hundred and sixty three patients (94%) received different chemotherapy (CT) protocols as conditioning regimen and 12 patients (6%), CT plus total body irradiation. At relapse, 94 patients (53%) presented with advanced stages (III-IV), 49 patients (28%) with B symptoms and 19 (11%) with bulky disease. Relapse was extranodal in 45% of the patient population. Ten percent of the patients had a poor performance status (ECOG ≥2) and 37 patients (22%) had a hemoglobin (Hb) level