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From 1956 to 1987, 60 patients with either lymphangiogram-staged or laparotomy-staged I-II lower torso presentations of Hodgkin's disease were treated with radiation with or without Mustargen (mechlorethamine), vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (MOPP). In 22 with inguinal/femoral or pelvic disease and 24 with abdominal disease, treatment consisted of radiation only. Fourteen other patients with abdominal disease received MOPP chemotherapy before radiotherapy. In 11, the chemotherapy was limited to two cycles. At 10 years, the determinate survival and freedom from progression rates for all patients were 82% and 72%, respectively. For patients with inguinal/femoral or pelvic disease who were treated with radiation only, the corresponding rates were 90% and 86%. For patients with abdominal disease who received radiation only, the determinate survival and the freedom from progression rates were only 66% and 50%, respectively. However, corresponding results for 14 patients with abdominal disease who were treated with MOPP and radiation were 100% and 92% (P = 0.033 and P = 0.009, respectively.

The authors discuss an angiosarcoma that developed in a 50-year-old woman's breast 10 years after she underwent conventional postoperative irradiation with cobalt 60 teletherapy. Although angiosarcoma developing in a lymphedematous arm after radical mastectomy is a well-known phenomenon, and several cases of angiosarcoma are known to have occurred in the chest wall after mastectomy with or without irradiation, only one other case of angiosarcoma in an irradiated breast has been reported. The possible role of therapeutic irradiation in inducing this malignancy is discussed.