Table I.

Staging Hodgkin lymphoma and risk factors

Stage	Involved sites		A or B suffix to stage
Limited stage favorable		Limited stage unfavorable
I	One node or a group of adjacent nodes	Limited stage with additional risk factors * >3-4 lymph node areas Elevated ESR Advanced age ≥1 Extranodal sites B symptoms	Absence or presence of B symptoms (below) qualifies any stage as A or B respectively Fevers. Unexplained fever with temperature above 38°C Night sweats. Drenching sweats Weight loss. Unexplained weight loss of more than 10% of the usual body weight in the 6 months prior to diagnosis
II	Two or more nodal groups on the same side of the diaphragm
Advanced stage
II bulky	Single nodal mass, in contrast to multiple smaller nodes, of 10 cm or greater than a third of the transthoracic diameter at any level of thoracic vertebrae
III	Nodes on both sides of the diaphragm; nodes above the diaphragm with spleen involvement
IV	Additional noncontiguous extra lymphatic involvement (for e.g. lung, liver or skeletal metastases)

^*Risk factors are defined differently by various study groups