Clinical characteristics and prognostic factors in Chinese patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma

The aim of our study is to investigate the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors in Chinese Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients. It is known that clinical characteristics and epidemiology of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in China are different from Western countries. In total, 137 consecutive, previously untreated patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center were enrolled. Among these patients, 92 were male and 45 were female, with a median age of 28 (range: 2–76) years. The bimodal age curve of classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma analyzed from our patients was not obvious as the Western population, showing an early peak in 25 years and a second peak in 45 years. Most of the patients (41.6%) were classified as nodular sclerosis classic Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Results showed that the 5-year overall survival, event-free survival, and disease-free survival rates were 97.7, 85.0, and 94.0%, respectively. Lymphopenia at diagnosis was related to poorer overall survival (P = 0.015) and event-free survival (P < 0.001) in all-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients. Multivariate analysis showed that lymphopenia as an independent unfavorable prognostic factor influenced event-free survival (P = 0.015). The international prognostic score ≥ 5 was also the only independent prognostic factor of disease-free survival in advanced-stage patients (P = 0.046). Our findings demonstrated that some clinical characteristics of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in China were different from those in the Western countries. Lymphopenia was an effective prognostic predictor in both early stage and advanced stage.