Hodgkin Lymphoma: Tumor Size Linked to Risk for Relapse
Maximum tumor diameter (MTD) showed a strong association with the risk for relapse in patients with limited-stage Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) achieving PET negativity, with each centimeter increase in MTD linked to a 21% higher risk for relapse.
METHODOLOGY:
Researchers analyzed 1278 patients with stage I/IIA HL without mediastinal bulk who achieved PET negativity after doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine treatment across two trials: RAPID (n = 419) and H10 (n = 859).
Participants received either chemotherapy alone (n = 514) or combined modality therapy with chemotherapy plus radiotherapy (n = 764), with treatment allocation determined by trial protocols.
Analysis included evaluation of baseline MTD measured using CT, with investigators examining its association with event-free survival and progression-free survival.
TAKEAWAY:
MTD demonstrated a consistent association with event-free survival in both the H10 validation cohort (hazard ratio [HR], 1.22; 95% CI, 1.07-1.38; P = .003) and the RAPID cohort (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.02-1.39; P = .02).
= .003) and the RAPID cohort (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.02-1.39; = .02). Treatment modality and MTD emerged as independent risk factors, with patients receiving chemotherapy alone showing a 5-year event-free survival rate of 92.4% (95% CI, 89.1%-94.7%) with MTD < 5 cm vs 82.3% (95% CI, 73.8%-88.2%) with MTD ≥ 5 cm.
According to the researchers, no clear MTD threshold was identified above which marked differences in event-free survival occurred, suggesting a continuous relationship between the tumor size and the risk for relapse.
IN PRACTICE:
'This international validation study confirms MTD is strongly associated with relapse risk in patients with LS-HL [limited-stage HL] achieving PET− and informs decision-making around risk-adapted application of radiotherapy...Treatment modality and MTD were independent risk factors; patients with higher MTD receiving chemotherapy alone had the greatest relapse risk,' the authors of the study wrote.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Elizabeth H. Phillips, PhD, Division of Cancer Sciences, The University of Manchester and Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, England. It was published online on May 13 in Blood Advances .
LIMITATIONS:
According to the authors, this study lacked centralized radiology review, which may have affected the consistency of MTD measurements across different imaging planes. Additionally, baseline PET assessment was not mandatory in either trial, limiting the ability to compare tumor diameter measurements with advanced PET metrics such as metabolic tumor volume.
DISCLOSURES:
This study received support from the National Institute for Health Research and Social Care, the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Medical Engineering at King's College London, and the National Institute for Health Research Manchester Biomedical Research Centre. Additional disclosures are noted in the original article.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Millions more to get test results via NHS app, government says
The NHS app will become the default method of communication for millions more patients in England and save the health service £200m over the next three years, the government has said. More test results, screening invitations and appointment reminders will be sent directly to smartphones as part of a £50m investment in the app, in a move away from traditional communication methods such as letters. It is estimated that at least 50 million letters are sent to patients each year. The Department of Health and Social Care said that people who cannot access app messaging - including elderly patients - will receive text messages and then a letter as a last resort, and NHS phone lines would be freed up. The department says 270 million messages will be sent through the NHS app this financial year - an increase of 70 million on the previous year. Push notifications will provide appointment reminders to patients to try to reduce the risk of no attendance - with around eight million missed appointments in elective care missed in 2023/24. Work is also under way to enable users of the app to add appointments to their phone calendars and request help from their local GP surgeries. Figures show that more than 11 million people in the UK log into the NHS app every month, while almost 20 million are opted in to receive healthcare messages from the app. It is hoped the changes will give patients better access to manage their healthcare journey and make informed decisions about their care. NHS app services, which were launched in December 2018, are now used in 87% of hospitals across England. Health Secretary Wes Streeting said further investment in the app would bring the NHS into the digital age so that being a patient was as "convenient as online banking or ordering a takeaway". He added that moving away from paper communication could free up funding for front line services. Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patient's Association, said the upgrade was a "significant step in modernising how patients receive information". The British Medical Association (BMA) has previously warned that a reliance on apps to the NHS to communicate with patients risked alienating patients who don't have access to digital technology. It followed the government's announcement in January that it planned to allow more patients in England to book treatments and appointments through the app. Last month, NHS England announced millions of patients would be able to get "Amazon-style" tracking updates on their prescriptions through the app, to check if their medicines are ready to collect or have been despatched for delivery. New app trial cuts skin cancer referrals by 50% NHS App upgrade to give patients more choice over treatment Patients to get full access to record on NHS App
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
WVU Medicine extends commitment further in Mercer County with $25M emergency and behavior health facility
bluefield – Officials broke ground Thursday for a new $25 million health care campus that will serve behavioral health and emergency medical needs across a 10-county region encompassing parts of West Virginia and Virginia. Supporters gathered outside the Behavioral Health Pavilion of the Virginias off Route 460 in Bluefield for the ceremony which marks the start of the site's transformation. 'It's a great event today and I'm super excited to talk about our $25 million project,' Princeton Community Hospital president and CEO Karen Bowling said. 'I think it's important for us to acknowledge how we got here today and how this project came about,' she said. 'It is important for us to invest in Mercer County. There's a great need here and we are so fortunate to have a great board of directors who have vision and saw the need for this project, but more importantly we have a great system board. And Albert Wright, who leads that system board, they were able to believe in us and know this is a great investment in Mercer County.' Bowling said the Bluefield and Bluefield, Va. area is important to the hospital. 'And it's not just about the location, but really it is to express to the Bluefield community that we're invested in state-of-the-art health care in this part of Mercer County,' she said. 'We believe that's key for everyone to know and understand we are here to serve a 10-county region and this part of the county actually borders on several counties that we serve; and we want to make sure as we think about comprehensive care across our region that we're able to do that through the types of projects you're about to see.' Scheduled to be completed in late 2027, the Bluefield Campus project includes a 24,000-square-foot addition and an 18,000-square-foot renovation to the existing facility now housing Princeton Community's 64-bed behavioral health hospital. In this project, the expansion will consolidate Princeton Community Hospital's services into a single facility that will be visible from Route 460, one of Mercer County's main highways. The hospital's behavioral health facility serves patients not only from Mercer County, but also the West Virginia counties of Raleigh, McDowell, Monroe, Summers and Wyoming as well as the Southwest Virginia counties of Tazewell, Bland, Giles and Wythe. While the facility is currently called the Behavioral Health Pavilion of the Virginias, it's getting a new name. 'I'm very excited to announce that our new name for our behavioral health service is WVU Medicine PCH Behavioral Health Center,' Bowling said. The campus's new emergency department will include 20 exam rooms, including two rooms designed for psychiatric intake; two resuscitation rooms and two triage rooms; obstetrics-ready and trauma rooms; centralized care team support stations; and dedicated patient and ambulance entrances. Adjacent to the emergency department, there will be a new 10-bed observation unit providing flexible capabilities for extended monitoring, Bowling said. Each observation room will include an in-room bathroom, and the unit will feature an Individual of Size room to ensure inclusive care. Bowling also described features for outpatient and diagnostic services, including lab services for both walk-in and inpatient care as well as respiratory therapy services. The facility's imaging suite will have diagnostic radiology; a computed tomography scanner; a magnetic resonance imaging scanner and two ultrasound rooms. The MRI and ultrasound rooms will be new services for Bluefield. The Bluefield Campus will also have a Safe Haven Baby Box, the fifth one in West Virginia and the first in southern West Virginia, Bowling said. This climate-controlled, padded device allows parents in crisis to safely and anonymously surrender a newborn up to 30 days old, as permitted under West Virginia's Safe Haven Law. Once a baby is placed inside, a silent alarm immediately alerts hospital staff to respond and provide care. Mayor Ron Martin of Bluefield, said the new emergency department will be more than another building. 'It's a promise that our families will have quicker access to lifesaving care, that our seniors, our children and our neighbors can count on world-class treatment right here at home,' he said. 'This ER means faster response times and outcomes and a renewed commitment to Bluefield.' Twenty-five million dollars is a huge investment that the Princeton Community could not have made as a stand-alone hospital, said Rusty Sarver, Princeton Community Hospital Association Board Chair. 'This is definitely a pinnacle,' Sarver said to the audience. 'We do support Bluefield. We do support this side of the county. Everything that we do is for the people and at the end of the day, that's why we're here.' Albert Wright, WVU Health System president and CEO, said groundbreaking ceremonies like the one conducted Thursday remind him how the Legislature started the West Virginia University Health System in 1996. It was created by the merging of WVU Hospitals in Morgantown and United Hospital Center in Bridgeport. 'At that time in the mid to late nineties, a lot of health care organizations around the country including West Virginia were being bought up by out-of-state, for-profit entities, ' Wright said. There was a concern that if there was not a West Virginia-based hospital system, at some point all of the decisions about the state's health care would be made out of state. He said the new Bluefield campus will reinforce WVU Medicine's commitment to health outcomes in West Virginia. Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@
Entrepreneur
2 hours ago
- Entrepreneur
Biopeak Raises USD 3.5 Million to Expand AI-Driven Health Clinics
"We're at a unique point where developments in molecular diagnostics, AI, and imaging allow us to understand the human body in unprecedented ways," says Rishi Pardal, Co-founder and CEO of Biopeak Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Biopeak, a wellness and longevity-focused startup headquartered in Bengaluru, has raised USD 3.5 million (approximately INR 29 crore) in seed funding from a group of notable investors. The round saw participation from Accel founding partner Prashanth Prakash, Claypond Capital--the family office of Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai and NKSquared, the investment arm of Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath. Founded in 2024 by Rishi Pardal and Shiva Subramanian, Biopeak delivers personalised health services through its own clinics, combining advanced diagnostics, molecular science, and artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor early signs of physiological change. The company launched its first clinic in Bengaluru in March 2025. The funding will be used to expand Biopeak's clinic footprint across key Indian cities and strengthen its AI-based diagnostic and care delivery platform. "We're at a unique point where developments in molecular diagnostics, AI, and imaging allow us to understand the human body in unprecedented ways," said Rishi Pardal, Co-founder and CEO of Biopeak. "Our platform translates these insights into actionable, individualised health plans aimed at extending one's healthspan, not just lifespan." Biopeak's approach includes a suite of diagnostic tools such as microbiome mapping, organic acid profiling, salivary cortisol rhythm analysis, and whole-exome functional genomics. These are integrated with non-invasive imaging technologies including MRI, CT, DXA, and ECHO, along with tissue-level screenings to assess toxin levels, mineral balance, and oxidative stress. Clients typically undergo more than six hours of detailed consultations guided by a dedicated health manager and a multidisciplinary team of specialists. Health plans are updated regularly based on follow-up tests and consultations. Commenting on the investment, Prashanth Prakash said, "As India's population ages, our challenge is to build systems that not only extend life but also improve the quality of those extended years. Geroscience, early interventions, and scalable healthcare models will be central to this shift." Prakash, who also mentors Biopeak, is the Founding Patron of Longevity India, a platform focused on ageing research and interventions tailored for India's demographic needs.
