Role of additional radiotherapy in advanced stages of Hodgkin's disease

Although radiotherapy is widely used as additional treatment following chemotherapy, its precise role has never been clearly proven. Relapses tend to occur in previously involved bulky sites. Non-randomized studies may suggest a positive effect of the addition of radiotherapy. This effect however, might also be caused by selection. Randomized studies have not resulted in a survival advantage for the patients treated with additional radiotherapy compared to no further treatment or additional chemotherapy. The SWOG study 7808 suggest a 20% benefit in remission duration for the nodular sclerosis histology subgroup. Definitive conclusions have to wait for more mature results of randomized studies including the ongoing EORTC study and the possibility to perform an overview of all studies.