Modified outpatient dexamethazone, cytarabine and cisplatin regimen may lead to high response rates and low toxicity in lymphoma

Our purpose was to investigate the efficacy of and establish a toxicity profile for a modified regimen of dexamethasone, cytarabine and cisplatin [DHAP] for lymphoma outpatients. Fifty-one lymphoma patients, 26 with Hodgkin's disease and 25 with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, were included. The patients' median age was 32 years [range: 17-61]. Twenty had progressive/refractory disease and 31 relapsed disease. Twenty-five were in clinical stage I/II and 26 in clinical stage III/IV before the initiation of salvage chemotherapy. DHAP consisted of dexamethasone [40 mg i.v. on days 1-4], cytarabine [2 g/m[2] i.v. as 3-hour infusion on days 2 in the evening and 3 in the morning] and cisplatin [35 mg/m[2] as 2-hour infusion on days 1-3] were administered every 21 days. A total of 154 cycles of modified DHAP were administered, with a median of 3 cycles per patient [range: 2-4]. The main toxicity was myelosuppression. WHO grade III-IV neutropenia and grade III-IV thrombocytopenia were observed in 27 [52.9%] and 21 [41%] patients, respectively. The overall response rate [85% for Hodgkin's disease and 95% for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma] was 88.3% [39.2% complete response and 49.1% partial response]. The results showed that this outpatient schedule of DHAP was well tolerated and an effective salvage regimen

Impact of C-erb2 status on survival after high dose chemotherapy in high-risk breast cancer patients

To investigate the impact of c-erb2 status on survival after high-dose chemotherapy. Between March 1997 and June 2004, a total of 54 women with breast cancer who has at least 8 metastatic lymph nodes underwent high-dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in Giilhane Military Medical School, Ankara, Turkey. Archival specimens were analyzed by fluorescent in situ hybridization to determine the impact of c-erb2 status after peripheral blood stem cell transplantation on survival. The patients were divided into c-erb2 negative [n=20] and positive [n=l 1] groups. No statistically significant differences were detected between c-erb2 negative and positive groups regarding 5 -year disease-free survival [41 and 27%, log rank p=0.1 1], and overall survival [60 and 45%, p=0.33[. Transplant related mortality did not differ between groups. We found no differences between c-erb2 negative and positive groups regarding disease-free and overall survival. To clarify the value of the c-erb2 status in predicting outcome after high-dose chemotherapy, prospective randomized studies are needed