title: Dexa-BEAM as salvage therapy in patients with primary refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
abstract: Although aggressive NHL in relapse after remission can still be cured by second-line treatment followed by high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation, the long-term prognosis of patients who fail to obtain remission after first-line therapy remains extremely poor. We retrospectively evaluated a series of 29 consecutive patients with primary refractory high-grade NHL who were treated with Dexa-BEAM (DB) as uniform salvage therapy at a single institution. Twenty-nine patients with aggressive NHL primary refractory to CHOP or CHOP-like induction therapy with a median age of 47 (range, 22 - 64) years received 1 - 2 cycles of DB and were candidates for subsequent autologous stem cell (PBSC) mobilization and transplantation (PBSCT). Follow-up of all patients was updated in March 2004. Eight of 29 patients (28%) responded to one cycle of DB (1 complete/7 partial remissions); 2 of whom are alive after PBSCT (1 autologous/1 matched unrelated donor), 1 patient died after autologous PBSCT. Reasons for failure to proceed to high-dose therapy in spite of response to DB were recurrent progressive disease (n = 2), septicemia (n = 1), and allogeneic transplant-related mortality after mobilization failure to DB (n = 2). Twenty-one patients failed to respond to DB and died of progressive disease. Overall survival was 7% after 41 months. We conclude that Dexa-BEAM salvage therapy is not effective in patients with truly primary refractory high-grade NHL. The efficiency of rituximab combined with Dexa-BEAM or novel chemotherapeutic strategies needs to be established.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, J. W. Goethe-University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany. atta@em.uni-frankfurt.de
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Atta
authors.forename: Kai U
authors.initials: KU
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Eckhart
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weidmann
authors.forename: Paris S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Mitrou
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hoelzer
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002330:Carmustine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003561:Cytarabine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005047:Etoposide / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D019650:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Mobilization; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008558:Melphalan / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000628:therapy; D012074:Remission Induction; D016879:Salvage Therapy; D015996:Survival Rate; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous
chemical_list: D003561:Cytarabine; D005047:Etoposide; D003907:Dexamethasone; D008558:Melphalan; D002330:Carmustine