Dr Kola Tytler MBBS CertHE MBA MRCGPClinical Lead • iatroX
Recommended follow-up protocols for patients treated for Hodgkin lymphoma in primary care include:
- Ensuring patients have a named key worker during treatment and contact details for the specialist team after treatment completion to facilitate communication and support.
- Providing end-of-treatment summaries to patients and their GPs, highlighting personal and general risk factors, including late effects related to Hodgkin lymphoma and its treatment.
- Educating patients on how to recognise possible relapse symptoms and late effects of treatment, and advising them to seek urgent appointments if new or recurrent symptoms suggest relapse.
- Offering regular clinical assessments after treatment, with consideration to stop routine clinical assessments aimed at detecting relapse after 3 years of ongoing complete remission.
- Not routinely offering surveillance imaging (such as chest X-ray, CT, or PET-CT) or LDH blood tests for relapse detection in asymptomatic patients.
- At 3 years post-treatment, considering transferring surveillance of late effects to nurse-led or GP-led services to support long-term survivorship care.
- Discussing lifestyle and exercise from diagnosis onwards to support overall health and recovery.
These follow-up protocols emphasise patient education, symptom awareness, and coordinated care between primary and specialist services, with a focus on personalised and risk-based surveillance rather than routine imaging or blood tests in asymptomatic patients.
References: NICE NG52