HEALTH PROFESSIONAL · SOURCE READING

Treatment of Primary Refractory or Recurrent Hodgkin Lymphoma in Children and Adolescents

Source: Childhood Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version, National Cancer Institute.

Source updated: April 16, 2025 · Captured 2026-09-09.

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Because children and adolescents with Hodgkin lymphoma have excellent responses to frontline therapy, second-line (salvage) therapy has only been evaluated in a limited capacity. Because primary therapy fails in relatively few patients, no uniform second-line treatment strategy exists for this population.[1]

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Adverse prognostic factors after relapse include the following:[2][Level of evidence C1]

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The presence of B symptoms (fever, weight loss, and night sweats) and extranodal disease.[3]

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Early relapse (occurring 3–12 months from the end of therapy).[4,5]

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Inadequate response to initial second-line therapy.[5]

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Children with localized favorable relapses (≥12 months after completing therapy) whose original therapy involved reduced cycles of risk-adapted chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy with low-dose, small-volume radiation therapy (consolidation therapy) have a high likelihood of achieving long-term survival after treatment with more intensive conventional chemotherapy.[6,7]

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Treatment options for children and adolescents with refractory or recurrent Hodgkin lymphoma include the following:

Chemotherapy and targeted therapy.

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