Patients with advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma for whom treatment was at high risk of failing appear to benefit from early treatment intensification with autologous transplantation, as indicated by the possibility of successful salvage treatment in more than 70% of PET2-positive patients through obtaining the same 2-year progression-free survival as the PET2-negative subgroup.

In our experience, gemcitabine proved to be effective in pretreated MF and PTCLU patients, even in the long term.

No abstract

© F e r r a t a S t o r t i F o u n d a t i o nN o c o m m e r c i a l u s e dinating center) and by all involved ethical committees and registered in the Italian Registry of Observational Studies (AIFA, id551). All patients gave written informed consent to their participation in the study in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. A shared database was used after the approval of all the authors and variables were strictly defined to avoid bias in reporting data. From December 2010 to August 2011, a total of nine Italian centers utilized BV according to the NPP in 65 patients with refractory or relapsed HL. All patients had histologically confirmed CD30 + disease and all patients had relapsed after prior ASCT or relapsed after at least two lines of chemotherapy if not ASCT candidates because of insufficient stem cell collection or chemorefractory disease. Participants had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status ≤2, and normal organ function including peripheral blood counts within the normal range. All patients underwent baseline assessments including physical examination, routine hematology and biochemistry tests as well as positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) studies prior to therapy.Patients received a 30-min infusion of BV at the dose of 1.8 mg/kg of body weight every 3 weeks (for a maximum of 16 cycles) without any routine premedication prior to the first dose. However, patients who experienced an infusion-related reaction subsequently received premedication consisting of acetaminophen (500 mg orally) and chlorphenamine (10 mg intravenously) or according to institutional standards.The primary endpoint of the study was the objective response rate; secondary endpoints were safety, overall survival and progression-free survival. In the absence of specific indications, response was assessed by PET/CT scans after cycle 3 and 8 (PET3, PET8) and at treatment discontinuation, as reported in the pivotal study, 11 using the International Working Group revised response criteria for malignant lymphoma. 12Safety and tolerability were evaluated by recording the incidence, severity, and type of any adverse event according to the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI CTCAE) version 3.0. Gastrointestinal side effects were treated according to institutional guidelines and granulocyte colony-stimulating factors were utilized as secondary prophylaxis of complications of neutropenia. In cases of grade ≥3 toxicity, it was recommended that the dose of BV was reduced to 1.2 mg/kg in the subsequent cycles.Overall survival was defined as the time from initiation of therapy to death from any cause and was censored at the date of the last available follow up. Progression-free survival was measured from initiation of therapy to progression, relapse, or death from any cause and was censored at the date of the last available follow up.Demographics and patients' characteristics were summarized by descriptive statistics. Survival functions ...

Our results demonstrate the role of an early PET scan as a significant step forward in the management of patients with early-stage or advanced-stage HL.