Differences in time to treatment and impact on overall survival in adolescents and young adults with Hodgkin lymphoma

Delays in time to treatment (TTT) have been shown to affect cancer survival, yet this has not been investigated in adolescent and young adult (AYA) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) patients. This retrospective analysis included 508 patients with TTT defined as the time between diagnosis and chemotherapy start. The median TTT for the population was 28 days (IQR: 12-44). Patients who reported fevers and night sweats had shorter TTT than those who did not (<i>p</i> = 0.016 and <i>p</i> = 0.017, respectively). TTT varied significantly by age group (<i>p</i> < 0.01), with adolescents (15-18 years) having nearly a 10-day shorter TTT (21.3 days) compared to a TTT of 30.2 and 31.2 days for emerging adults (19-25 years) and young adults (26-39 years), respectively. Delayed TTT was not associated with risk of death. The lack of association with survival may reflect the overall favorable survival experienced by AYA HL patients and is in line with that reported for HL across all age populations.