Utility of Routine Surveillance Imaging for Hodgkin Disease following Autologous Transplant: Experiences from a Single Institution

Background: Surveillance scans performed after autologous stem cell transplant (auto-HCT) for patients with Hodgkin disease (HD) have no proven survival benefit. Methods: We studied survival differences among patients with HD after auto-HCT whose recurrences were detected on clinical history and exam, versus those detected on routine surveillance scan. Results: Among the 98 patients with HD that underwent auto-HCT from 2000 to 2014 at our institution, 30 relapsed, of which 21 were detected radiologically and 9 clinically. There were no statistically significant differences in patient characteristics between the 2 groups. The median time to progression was 118 days for the clinical cohort and 284 days for the radiological cohort (p = 0.05). Median overall survival (OS) was 728 days for the clinical cohort, and was not reached for the radiological cohort (p = 0.02). Discussion: In our review, most patients with HD after auto-HCT were diagnosed radiologically. Patients whose relapse was diagnosed clinically were likely to be detected earlier and have a shorter OS. Patients with aggressive disease may be detected when clinically relevant, regardless of scanning. Routine scanning may not be necessary in the majority of patients with HD following auto-HCT.