ABSTRACT
Hodgkin’s, disease is the most common malignancy in the population aged 15 to 24 years.5 Prolonged survival of almost 90 percent of patients is now expected for a high proportion of young patients treated with cytotoxic chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s disease.1,5-7 This is due to the introduction of effective chemotherapy such as MOPP (mechlorethamine, vincristine, prednisone and procarbazine) and/or ABVD (adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine and decarbazine) and its variants.1,5,8-10 Similar rates of long-term survival have been reported about patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as for patients with other types of tumors receiving chemotherapy1,2,5-8 Moreover, cytotoxic agents have also been used for chemotherapy for various autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis, and for the prevention of organ transplant rejection.1,6 Recent advances in the understanding of the molecular biology of lymphomas permit an additional dimension-the identification of molecular characteristics associated with a poor prognosis, such as patterns of gene expression that are associated with protection against apoptosis, chemotherapy resistance, or the stimulation of angiogenesis. If such attempts prove successful, the goal of 100 percent cure without serious late secondary effects, despite its apparent elusiveness a few decades ago, will have been positioned clearly on the horizon.7
