Single-agent high-dose melphalan followed by auto-SCT for relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma in children and adolescents.

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is cured in the majority of children and adolescents. However, there remains a group of patients with primary refractory or relapsed disease for whom cure is more difficult to achieve. Most of these patients receive high-dose chemotherapy followed by auto-SCT, with expected cure rates ranging from 40 to 60%. Conditioning regimens often consist of multiple non-cross-resistant agents, with well-described risks of morbidity and mortality. The use of single-agent high-dose melphalan (HDM) as conditioning, before autologous rescue, has been described in adult patients at our center, with comparable efficacy and less morbidity. We present a series of eight pediatric patients conditioned with single-agent HDM before autologous stem cell rescue for relapsed and primary refractory HL. All patients engrafted with a median of 12 days to neutrophil engraftment. Two patients subsequently relapsed. Seven patients are currently alive, and seven of eight patients have no evidence of disease (one in CR3). Toxicities included grade 4 hematologic in 8/8, grade 3 mucositis in 3/8, grade 3 infectious in 2/8 and grade 4 infectious in 1/8. Our analysis suggests that this regimen is feasible in pediatric patients with acceptable engraftment and toxicity.