Response to low-dose oral methotrexate and prednisone in two patients with angio-immunoblastic lymphadenopathy-type T-cell lymphoma.
BACKGROUND
AILD-type T-cell lymphoma is characterized by very poor prognosis in most patients and the response rate to conventional chemotherapy is unsatisfactory.


METHODS
Two patients (a 65 year old female and a 67 year old male) with AILD-type lymphoma who did not respond to conventional treatment with steroids or aggressive chemotherapy were treated with Methotrexate and Prednisone. Both patients received a weekly dose of MTX (10 mg/m(2)) that was administered orally in combination with PDN at an initial dose (15 mg/day), given on a daily basis.


RESULTS
Both patients responded rapidly showing marked improvement with no major side effects. Complete clinical remission was recorded in the two patients who were treated with this combination after conventional chemotherapy had failed to produce any improvement.


CONCLUSIONS
Our observations in two patients with refractory/relapsed AILD-type lymphoma who were given low-dose oral MTX as salvage treatment, suggest that this agent has immunosuppressive effects that can be beneficial for treating patients with AILD-type T-cell lymphoma. Pilot clinical trials are needed to verify its efficacy in this setting.
Quintini
G
G
Divisione di Ematologia con Trapianto di Midollo, Università di Palermo, Italy. gequint@tin.it
Iannitto
E
E
Barbera
V
V
Turri
D
D
Franco
V
V
Florena
A M
AM
Mariani
G
G
D000284:Administration, Oral; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007119:Immunoblastic Lymphadenopathy / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016411:Lymphoma, T-Cell, Peripheral / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008727:Methotrexate / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011241:Prednisone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D012074:Remission Induction; D016879:Salvage Therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D011241:Prednisone; D008727:Methotrexate