Reactions 511 - 23 Jul 1994

Antineoplastics

Leukaemia in patients with Hodgkin’s disease:incidence study

Patients with Hodgkin’s disease who received chlormethinetreatment had the highest risk of developing leukaemia,followed by those patients who received lomustine andteniposide combinations, according to the results of a case-control study conducted in the Netherlands.

From a cohort of 1939 patients treated for Hodgkin’sdisease over a 20-year period, information from the medicalrecords of 44 patients who developed leukaemia wascompared with that from 124 matched controls.

Patients who received ≤ 6 cycles of chlormethine andprocarbazine had an 8-fold risk of developing leukaemiacompared with patients who received radiotherapy alone.Those patients who were given ≥ 6 cycles of this combinationantineoplastic therapy had a > 40-fold risk of developingleukaemia.

Treatment with lomustine or a combination of teniposideand cyclophosphamide was also associated with a significantlyincreased risk of leukaemia. Patients who receivedantineoplastic therapy during 2 or more separate periods had a40-fold greater risk of leukaemia than those patients who hadonly 1 episode of antineoplastic therapy. Patients with lowplatelet counts (< 75 × 106/ml) were found to have asignificantly greater risk of leukaemia.Van Leeuwen FE, et al. Leukemia risk following Hodgkin’s disease: relation tocumulative dose of alkylating agents, treatment with teniposide combinations,number of episodes of chemotherapy, and bone marrow damage. Journal ofClinical Oncology 12: 1063-1073, May 1994 - Netherlands 800277715

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Reactions 23 Jul 1994 No. 5110114-9954/10/0511-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved