Late effects: Insights into Cardiovascular disease risk after Hodgkin's lymphoma Treatment

Hodgkin's lymphoma is a rare cancer, which is diagnosed in 2 out of 100.000
persons in the Netherlands per year. The disease occurs more frequently in
young adults and the chances of surviving the disease are high (>80% survival
after 5 years). Because of this high survival in relatively young patients, the
late effects of the treatment become of increasing importance.
It has been shown, that mediastinal radiotherapy (RT) as well as
anthracycline-containing chemotherapy (CT) increase the cardiovascular
morbidity and mortality of long term HL survivors. However, dose-response
relationships between the therapies and the cardiovascular risks still needs to
be investigated. Furthermore, investigation is needed to determine the rol of
other cardiovascular risk factors and genetic susceptibility in this proces.

The aim of this study is to identify risk factors for various CVDs, i.e. to
quantify separate and joint effects of radiation dose to the heart,
anthracycline dose, other CT, life style factors, established CVD risk factors
and genetic susceptibility in long-term survivors of Hodgkin Lymphoma.

A case-control design will be used to study the aim. Data will be mainly
collected from the medical records. Furthermore, patients still alive will be
approached to fill in a questionnaire and to give a blood sample to study
genetic susceptibility.

Burden: filling in a questionnaire (1 hour) and, if consented, giving 1 sample
of 20ml of blood (1 hour).
Risks: Limited risk of bleeding after arterial punction.