Between Nor. 1988 and Aug. 1989, 3 patients with the intermediate and high grade Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were treated with COP-BLAM III(cyclophosphamide, bleomycin, prednisone, vincristine, adriamycin, procarbazine) infusional chemotherapy.
No patients received any previous cytotoxic chemotherapy. The median age was 48yrs(range 14~75) and male to female ratio was 21:12. And the proportion of patients with 'B' symptoms, or bulky mass, or LDH>400 at diagnosis was 39%, 24%, 18%,
respectively.
The common histologic types were diffuse large cell(82%) and diffuse small cleaved type(9%), and immunoblastic type(6%).
The rate of complete remission was 73%(24/33) and overall response rate was 94%(31/33). The rang of disease free interval was from 1.1 to 23.9+months. The median-disease free interval was not reached right now. The range of survival time was from
1.4+to
26.6+ months.
The 2 year survival rate was 59.4% but the median survival time was not reached right now (the median follow up time: 14.8 months).
The main hematologic toxicities were the leukopenia(36.4%) and anemia(19.2%). Non-hematologic side effects were G-I symptoms-nausea/vomiting(41.7%), alopecia(94.5%), stomatitis(16.6%) and pulmonary toxicity(5.6%).
Based on high complete remission rate and tolerable toxicity, COP-BLAM III seems to be an effective treatment regimen for the intermediate and high grade Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To confirm the efficacy further, long-term follow up and the phase
III
randomised comparison with other regimens will be needed.
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