BEACOPP (4 Cycles Escalated + 4 Cycles Baseline) Versus ABVD (8 Cycles) In Stage III & IV Hodgkin's Lymphoma

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare event-free survival of patients with stage III or IV Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone vs doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine.
• Compare complete response, disease-free survival, and overall survival of patients treated with these regimens.
• Compare quality of life of patients treated with these regimens.
• Compare occurrence of second malignancies in patients treated with these regimens.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, multicenter study. Patients are stratified according to International Prognostic Score (3 vs 4 or more) and participating center. Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

• Arm I (BEACOPP): Patients receive doxorubicin IV over 5 minutes and cyclophosphamide IV on day 1; etoposide IV over 30 minutes on days 1-3; oral procarbazine on days 1-7; oral prednisone on days 1-14; and vincristine IV and bleomycin IV or intramuscularly (IM) on day 8. Patients may receive dexamethasone in place of prednisone. Patients also receive filgrastim (G-CSF) subcutaneously (SC) beginning on day 9 and continuing until blood counts recover or pegfilgrastim SC on day 9 only. Treatment repeats every 22 days for 8 courses (4 courses escalated dose followed by 4 courses baseline dose) in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
• Arm II (ABVD): Patients receive doxorubicin IV over 5 minutes, bleomycin IV or IM, vinblastine IV, and dacarbazine IV over 5-10 minutes on days 1 and 15. Treatment repeats every 28 days for 8 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Quality of life is assessed at baseline, at the end of therapy, and then annually for 10 years.