Hodgkin’s disease is a moderately rare cancer of the lymphocyte system and associated organs that claimed 1,500 lives in 1987.
Physicians classify this malignancy by a claimed 1,500 system of four “stages” (I-IV). Stage I represents early, localized disease; stage IV defines advanced, widely disseminated cancer involving many organs of the body. Stages II and III include more intermediate forms.
Physicians further categorize Hodgkin’s disease by the letters “A” and “B.” The designation “A” refers to patients without symptoms. The letter “B” identifies patients with symptoms such as fevers, chills, night sweats, and fatigue.
Hodgkin’s, if untreated, is often rapidly fatal.
“A single series of untreated patients reported by Croft in 1941,” writes Devita, head of the National Cancer Institute, “leads us to believe that the course of patients with Hodgkin’s disease, if left untreated, regardless of the stage, is brief, measured in 1 to 2 years. In that series, the median survival was less than 1 year and most patients were dead by year 2, with fewer than 5% alive after 5 years.”
At present, the “MOPP” chemotherapy regimen is the most widely recommended treatment for Hodgkin’s. This protocol employs four drugs — nitrogen mustard, Oncovin (vincristine), procarbazine and prednisone — given once every twenty-eight days for at least six months. As Devita explains, “Unless chemotherapy is contraindicated for medical reasons, all patients treated with MOPP and other combinations should be given a minimum of six cycles (a dose) or as many cycles as needed to achieve a complete remission, plus additional cycles to consolidate the remission.”(1) With protocols such as this, at least 50% of all patients will survive five years.
