Age over Fifty-Five Years at Diagnosis Increases Risk of Second Malignancies after Autologous Transplantation for Patients with Hodgkin Lymphoma

The impact of age at diagnosis on outcomes of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) undergoing autologous hematopoietic transplantation (auto-HCT) is unclear. We retrospectively evaluated the impact of age on outcomes of 310 consecutive patients with relapsed/refractory HL who underwent auto-HCT between January 1996 and December 2010 with carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan conditioning therapy. Patients were stratified into ≤ 55 and >55-year-age groups based on age at diagnosis. At a median follow-up of 80 (range, 1 to 180) months, progression-free survival was similar between both age groups. However, age older than 55 years at diagnosis was associated with significantly poor overall survival with a hazard ratio [HR] of 2.3 (P = .003) from higher rate of second malignancies (HR, 3.8; P = .015) compared with patients 55 years or younger. In conclusion age > 55 years at diagnosis increases risk of second malignancies after auto-HCT.