Did You Know?
A meta-analysis of 14 different clinical trials involving 1740 patients has shown that combined modality treatment of patients with advanced-stage Hodgkin's disease leads to a significantly inferior long-term survival outcome than combination chemotherapy alone. Patients receiving combination chemotherapy alone who remained in complete remission had significantly fewer fatal events than did complete responders who received chemotherapy plus radiation therapy. Patients who received combined modality therapy had twice the risk of dying from leukemia than those receiving chemotherapy alone. In addition, combined modality-treated patients who relapsed had a significantly lower survival in response to salvage therapy. (Loeffler M, J Clin Oncol 1998;16:818-829.)