Treatment of Nodular Lymphocyte-Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma: Where Do We Stand? Where Do We Go?

Abstract

Nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) is a rare B cell-derived lymphoma entity accounting for ≈5% of all Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) cases. In recent decades, patients with newly diagnosed NLPHL have usually been treated very similarly to classical HL (cHL). The 10-year overall survival rates with HL-directed approaches are in excess of 90%. However, pathological and clinical characteristics of NLPHL resemble indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL) in some aspects. Thus, nodular lymphocyte-predominant B-cell lymphoma has been proposed as an alternative name, and the use of B-NHL-directed treatment strategies has become more common in NLPHL despite limited data. Given the often indolent clinical course of NLPHL, even in the case of relapse, the majority of patients with disease recurrence do not require high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation but are treated sufficiently with low-intensity approaches such as single-agent anti-CD20 antibody treatment. The establishment of novel prognostic scores for NLPHL patients may optimize risk group and treatment allocation in newly diagnosed and relapsed disease.