Table of Contents
- Being male
- Age of 45 years or older
- Stage IV disease
- Low blood albumin level (less than 4g/dL; albumin is a type of protein.)
- Low hemoglobin level (less than 10.5g/dL; hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells)
- High white blood cell count (more than 15,000)
- Low lymphocyte count (less than 600)
Long-Term Effects of Treatments
The good news about Hodgkin's disease is that treatment can cure the disease. The bad news is that survivors face a higher than average risk for long-term complications of these treatments, some very serious.
Many patients experience chronic fatigue that can sometimes last for years. The most serious complications are secondary cancers and heart disease, which may develop over the 20 - 30 years following treatments. Secondary cancers include non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, melanoma, stomach and lung cancers, and breast and uterine cancers. Heart disease complications include coronary artery disease, stroke, heart valve problems, and cardiomyopathy (weakening of the heart muscle). Thyroid disorders are also a potential complication. Combinations of radiation and chemotherapies pose the highest risk of these problems.
Studies of adult survivors of various childhood cancers have found that, 30 years after treatment, patients with cured Hodgkin’s disease are especially likely to have developed other serious health problems. Female survivors have a significantly greater risk than male survivors. In particular, women who received chest radiation are at very high risk for developing breast cancer.
Patients with Hodgkin’s disease should get a written record of the treatments they received as children, and the potential risks of these treatments. These records can help the doctors who later oversee their care monitor for potential health problems. Survivors of Hodgkin’s disease should receive regular screening tests for cancer and heart disease. They may need to get these tests at a younger age than most patients. In particular, patients who were treated with chest radiation should get blood tests every 5 years to measure their cholesterol levels. Female patients who received chest radiation should get early and frequent mammograms.
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Review Date: 01/27/2011
Reviewed By: Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital.
Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M.,
Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
