High-dose chemotherapy with bone marrow rescue for treatment of Hodgkin's disease

Between December 1st 1984 and July 1st 1991, 20 patients, 11 males and 9 females, median age 36 years (range 14-54) with Hodgkin's disease were treated with high dose chemo-radiotherapy followed by autologous bone marrow rescue. At the time of autologous bone marrow transplantation, 8 patients were in complete remission, 9 in sensitive relapse and 3 were resistant to conventional treatments. There were 3 early procedure-related deaths: 1 cardiac failure due to cyclophosphamide treatment, 1 veno-occlusive disease, and 1 patient died from CMV interstitial pneumonitis, 4 months after ABMT. Of the 17 other patients, 15 are alive, 12 in complete remission, 2 in relapse and 1 patient is not evaluable due to short-follow-up follow-up. Disease free survival is 65% at 20 months with a follow-up of 60 months. There is a trend for a better disease-free survival in patients in complete remission at the time of autologous bone marrow transplantation vs patients in sensitive relapse, although it does not reach statistical significance (80% vs 37%).