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From July 1984 to September 1987, 737 patients with aggressive malignant lymphoma (ML) were treated by an intensive regimen (LNH-84) comprising three or four courses of doxorubicin, 75 mg/m2; cyclophosphamide, 1,200 mg/m2; vindesine, 2 mg/m2 x 2; bleomycin, 10 mg x 2; and prednisolone, 60 mg/m2 x 5 (ACVB), consolidation with high-dose methotrexate, ifosfamide, etoposide, asparaginase, and cytarabine, and a randomized late intensification with two courses of cytarabine, cyclophosphamide, teniposide, bleomycin, and prednisone (AraCVmB). Four hundred forty-two patients had intermediate-grade ML, 221 highgrade ML, and 74 unclassified ML. Most of the patients had advanced disease: stage IIE (23%), III (13%), or IV (47%); 38% disseminated nodes; 38% two or more extranodal sites; and 41% a tumoral mass greater than 10 cm. Five hundred fifty-three patients (75%) went into complete remission (CR), 63 (9%) into partial remission, 62 (8%) failed to respond, and 59 (8%) died during ACVB courses, 17 of them from progression of the disease. With a median follow-up of 23 months, the estimated 2-year overall survival time to failure (TTF), and time to relapse (TTR) survival are 67%, 56%, and 67%, respectively. Patients receiving a late intensification had the same relapse rate as the other patients. A persistent fibronecrotic mass was found in 150 patients (20%) and did not influence the relapse rate. Toxicity was mainly neutropenia and infection during the ACVB courses, with 40 patients (5%) dying from septic complications while responding to treatment. Fifty-three percent of the patients had a neutropenia less than 0.500 x 10(9)/L, 58% fever (6% grade 4), and 49% a documented infection (8% grade 4). These results obtained with the LNH-84 regimen demonstrate that this therapeutic scheme is an effective treatment for aggressive ML.
Coiffier et al. (Tue,) studied this question.