Treatment of Primary Progressive Hodgkin’s and Aggressive Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: Is There a Chance for Cure?

To determine differences in prognosis between primary progressive Hodgkin's disease (HD) and aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), we retrospectively analyzed patients with progressive lymphoma who were treated with different salvage chemotherapy regimens including high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) followed by autologous stem-cell support (ASCT). One hundred thirty-one patients with primary progressive lymphoma (HD, n = 67; NHL, n = 64) were enrolled. Primary progressive disease was defined as disease progression during first-line chemotherapy or only transient response (complete or partial response lasting