title: Favorable outcome of patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease treated with high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell rescue at the time of maximal response to conventional salvage therapy (Dex-BEAM).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Disease status before high-dose chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) is an important predictor of transplantation-related toxicity and event-free survival (EFS) for patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease (HD). We performed a phase II study in patients with relapsed or refractory HD to evaluate the feasibility of four cycles of Dexa-BEAM followed by high-dose chemotherapy with ABMT or PBSCT.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-six patients (median age 30, range 20-40 years) were treated with 2-4 courses of dexamethasone, carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine and melphalan (Dexa-BEAM) as salvage chemotherapy in order to attain maximal response. Patients achieving complete response (CR) or partial response (PR) received high-dose chemotherapy with ABMT or PBSCT. The conditioning regimen used was CVB (cyclophosphamide, carmustine, etoposide).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighteen patients responded to Dexa-BEAM, resulting in a response rate of 69%. At the time of transplant 16 patients were in CR two patients in PR. At present 14 patients transplanted are in continuous CR (median follow-up 40 months, range 14-60 months). Two patients with PR after four courses of Dexa-BEAM relapsed and died three months posttransplantation. Two patients with CR at the time of transplant relapsed after nine and 13 months respectively. Eight patients had rapid progressive disease after 2-4 cycles of Dexa-BEAM. One patient with progressive disease died in gram-negative sepsis after four cycles of Dexa-BEAM. There was no transplantation-related death.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggests the use of high-dose chemotherapy followed by stem cell transplantation at the time of maximal response.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Köln, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Josting
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kàtay
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rueffer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Winter
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tesch
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Engert
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Diehl
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Wickramanayake
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002330:Carmustine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003561:Cytarabine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005047:Etoposide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005260:Female; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008558:Melphalan / Q000008:administration & dosage; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000628:therapy*; D016879:Salvage Therapy; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D003561:Cytarabine; D005047:Etoposide; D003907:Dexamethasone; D003520:Cyclophosphamide; D008558:Melphalan; D002330:Carmustine