Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Patients With Newly Diagnosed Stage I or Stage II Hodgkin's Lymphoma

OBJECTIVES: Primary * Determine the complete response rate in patients with newly diagnosed stage IA, IB, IIA, or IIB non-bulky Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with doxorubicin, vinblastine, and gemcitabine. Secondary * Determine the event-free survival of patients treated with this regimen. * Determine the toxicity of this regimen in these patients. * Determine whether fludeoxyglucose F 18 positron-emission tomography scanning is useful in predicting clinical relapse and determining the presence of residual disease in these patients after treatment with this regimen. OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study. Patients receive doxorubicin IV over 3-5 minutes, vinblastine IV over 3-5 minutes, and gemcitabine IV over 30 minutes on days 1 and 15. Treatment repeats every 28 days for 6 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients undergo fludeoxyglucose F 18 positron-emission tomography (PET) scanning and CT scan before treatment and after courses 2 and 6 of therapy to assess response. Patients with a positive PET scan after completion of study therapy may undergo biopsy. A PET scan is performed 3 months later if biopsy is negative or biopsy is unable to be performed. Patients are followed every 3 months for 1 year, every 4 months for 2 years, every 6 months for 2 years, and then annually for 5 years.