title: alpha Interferon maintenance therapy in patients with low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas after cytoreductive chemotherapy with prednimustine and mitoxantrone.
abstract: A combination of prednimustine 100 mg/m2/day orally, days 1-5, and mitoxantrone 8 mg/m2/day intravenously, days 1 and 2, was administered to 19 patients with advanced low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after failure on or relapse after standard chemotherapy. The prednimustine and mitoxantrone (PmM) regimen was repeated every 4-6 weeks to a maximum of six cycles. Thirteen patients, achieving a complete (4) or partial (9) remission (CR or PR), received two additional courses for consolidation followed by interferon alfa-2b 5 million units (MU) subcutaneously (s.c.) three times weekly until progression or relapse. At the present time, remission duration ranges from 4.5+ to 17.5+ months, with a median of 14.5 months. In a historical comparison to unmaintained first remission preceding the PmM/interferon trial, a tendency towards a longer period of freedom from progression was apparent in the 13 patients receiving interferon maintenance treatment during their second PR or CR. These data provided the basis for a currently ongoing multicentre study randomly comparing initial chemotherapy with PmM versus cyclophosphamide/vincristine (Oncovin)/prednisone (COP) in patients with advanced centroblastic-centrocytic and centrocytic non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, followed by a second randomization in CR and PR patients for maintenance with alpha interferon versus observation only.
authors.affiliation: University of Münster, Department of Hematology/Oncology, Germany.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hiddemann
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Unterhalt
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Koch
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nahler
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van de Loo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D008942:Mitoxantrone / Q000008:administration & dosage; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011238:Prednimustine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D016879:Salvage Therapy
chemical_list: D000077190:Interferon alpha-2; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D011238:Prednimustine; D008942:Mitoxantrone