Abstract

Forty-two patients with stage IV Hodgkin's disease were treated at monthly intervals with a combination of nitrogen mustard and vincristine intravenously, and procarbazine hydrochloride and prednisone orally. Complete remissions were produced in 54% of the patients, and partial remissions in 19%; there were treatment failures in 26%. The complete remission rate obtained in this study was superior to that produced by single drugs. Patients who achieved complete remissions were placed either on maintenance treatment or no therapy. This was not a randomized study. Patients who were continued on maintenance combination chemotherapy at six- to eight-week intervals had a 31-month median duration of remission as compared to 19 months for patients receiving no treatment. The median survival time for all patients who responded to treatment was 39 months. Combination chemotherapy is, at this time, the treatment of choice in stage IV Hodgkin's disease.