Chemotherapy Alone Versus Chemotherapy Plus Radiotherapy for Early Stage Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Both chemotherapy (CT) alone and combined modality therapy (CMT) are effective modalities for the treatment of early stages of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). However, the optimal choice of treatment is still being discussed. Different research groups reported that ABVD-like CT followed by radiotherapy is highly effective for early favourable and early unfavourable (intermediate) stage HL. A recently conducted randomized trial aimed at determining whether CMT is superior to CT alone in early stages, showed no significant difference in 5 year overall survival (OS) and event-free survival in patients treated with either 4–6 cycles of ABVD alone or 2 cycles of ABVD plus radiotherapy. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis was performed for a more comprehensive comparison.