Prof Mark Hertzberg speaks to ecancer about the use of positron emission tomography in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma outside of Europe and North America.

This was an international, multi-centre, retrospective B-Holistic study.

The B-HOLISTIC study retrospectively reviewed patients with stage IIB–IV cHL or RRHL between 2010 and 2013.

Patients initially diagnosed with cHL who progressed to RRHL during the study were included in both groups. Details of PET and CT scans at baseline and during/end of frontline/salvage treatment, were reported in both groups.

Prof Hertzberg discusses the key results form this study. He says that this study provided real-world evidence on PET use in cHL and RRHL outside Europe and North America, which is suboptimal.

Although PET is part of standard care for cHL now, during 2010-2013 it was more commonly used only in RRHL, as reflected in the higher PET use in RRHL than cHL in this study.

There was lower overall PET use than CT because of comparatively limited access and availability of PET, in low-income countries.
Prof Hertzberg concludes by discussing how these results can impact the future treatment of cHLespecially in the LMICs.