OBJECTIVETo analyze the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of the newly diagnosed Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) patients.

METHODThe clinical data of 223 patients with pathologically confirmed and newly diagnosed HL (since January 2001 to December 2012) were collected from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital. The patients' route features, laboratory examination results, clinical manifestations and short-term efficacy were analyzed. Furthermore, the Log-rank test and Cox proportional hazard model were applied to analyze the prognosis. All data were analyzed with SPSS software version 1.0 and graphPad Prism 5.

RESULTSAmong the 223 newly diagnosed HL patients, the ratio of male to female was approximately 1.25:1 and the median age was 40 years old (range 3-84 years). The median survival period is 62 months (range 8-189 months). The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate was 92.8% for all 223 HL patients. Multivariate analysis showed that HL originated from mediastinal lymph node region, the extranodal sites were involved, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level increased and CR2 was unable to fulfil the CR/CRu which are independent prognostic factors of HL patients (P < 0.05). Therefore, according to the above-mentioned adverse prognostic factors, 223 cases of HL patients were regrouped as low, intermediate and high risk. The HL 5-year OS rate of three groups were 100%, 96.9% and 42.9%, OS in each group was significantly different (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONHL displays a high incidence in young male patients but the curative efficacy is optimal and the survival period is long. The HL originated at mediastinal lymph node region, involved extranodal sites, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) level increased and CR2 is unable to fulfil the CR/CRu which are independent prognostic factors of HL patients. According to the above-mentioned factors for the initial treatment of patients with HL, risk discrimination can predict the prognosis of patients with HL to a certain extent.