Secondary malignancy after radiotherapy for Hodgkin Lymphoma

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), formerly called Hodgkin disease, has attained high survival rates (≥75% at ten years for all grades and stages combined, age-standardised), with continued improvements in treatment modalities since the 1940s, when radiotherapy was first used to combat the disease. Today, sequential chemotherapy and radiation are used in many cases, but certain groups of patients, dependent on stage and prognostic factors, will have either chemotherapy or, in limited stage nodular lymphocyte predominant HL, radiotherapy alone to minimise exposure to potentially toxic treatment which carries the risk of long-term sequelae, such as the recognised increased risk of secondary cancers in HL survivors.

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