Hodgkin's disease survival by stage and age

OBJECTIVE: Prior reports on Hodgkin's disease have suggested a biologic beh avior difference between young and old patients. A study of 35,033 patients could confirm that older patients do not do as well as young patients rega rdless of age. METHODS: The National Cancer Data Base provided data from U.S. tumor regist ries on 35,033 patients newly diag nosed with Hodgkin's disease from 1985 t hrough 1994. For analysis the patients were divided into two time periods, 1985-1989 and 1990-1994. The earlier period provided survival data to asses s the impact of age and stage. RESULTS: The overall disease-specific, 5-year survival rate for the 1985-19 89 period was 84.9%. For stages I and II, it reached almost 90%. For both o bserved survival based on all deaths and disease-specific survival, the dur ation of survival decreased with increasing age. This decrease with age occ urred for all stages of the disease. CONCLUSIONS: The data reflect the actual status of management of Hodgkin's disease in the United States rather than the best attainable results. The d ecreasing survival with increasing age and in all stages further supports t he concept of a difference in biologic behavior of Hodgkin's disease associ ated with age.