Greater attention should be paid to developing therapies for elderly patients with Hodgkin lymphoma—A population‐based study from Sweden

OBJECTIVE: Forty percent of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients are older than 50 years at diagnosis, a fact which is not commonly recognized. Older patients do significantly worse than younger patients and are rarely included in clinical trials. METHODS: Using data from Swedish Cancer and Lymphoma Registries, we estimated relative survival ratios (RSRs) for 7997 HL patients (diagnosed 1973-2013; 45% ≥50 years). RESULTS: The 1-year RSRs (95% confidence interval; CI) for males aged 45-59, 60-69, 70-80, and 81 years and over, diagnosed in 2013, were 0.95 (0.91-0.97), 0.88 (0.81-0.92), 0.74 (0.63-0.81), and 0.52 (0.35-0.67), respectively. The corresponding 1-year RSRs for females were 0.97 (0.94-0.98), 0.91 (0.85-0.95), 0.82 (0.73-0.88), and 0.66 (0.50-0.77). No improvements in 1-year of 5-year relative survival from 2000 to 2013 were observed for patients aged 45-59 or 60-69 but there were modest improvements for patients aged 70 years and older. Importantly, we saw no changes in the distribution of disease or patient characteristics between 2000 and 2013. CONCLUSIONS: Elderly patients constitute a large group with clearly unmet medical needs. Our findings motivate a more active approach to including elderly patients in clinical trials. Our study provides a baseline for outcome comparison after the broader introduction of targeted drugs.