NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Jun 19 - Latent Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection of tumor cells in older patients with classical Hodgkin's lymphoma is indicative of an adverse outcome, Dutch researchers report in a May 26th on-line publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
"This study indicates that positive tumor cell EBV status in older adult patients with classical Hodgkin's lymphoma is associated with first-line treatment failure," lead investigator Dr. Arjan Diepstra told Reuters Health.
Dr. Diepstra of University Medical Center Groningen and colleagues came to this conclusion after studying 431 patients who were a median of 35 years old at diagnosis. They were followed for a median of 7.1 years and 34% were positive for EBV.
However, EBV influenced survival only in the patients between 50 and 74 years old. Failure-free survival at 5 years was 60% in EBV-positive patients and 85% in EBV-negative patients. Corresponding proportions for 5-year relative survival were 69% and 82%.
After adjustment for factors such as histology, stage and presence of extranodal localizations and treatment, the EBV effect on failure-free survival remained significant (hazard ratio, 3.11).
Given these findings, Dr. Diepstra concluded that "clinical trials are needed to determine whether these patients could benefit from adapted treatment strategies."
J Clin Oncol 2009;27.
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