ABSTRACT
AIM: To evaluate the efficiency of intensive polychemotherapy (PCT) in adult patients having diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBL) of bones and soft tissues with and without poor prognostic factors (PPF). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Out of 58 enrolled patients, 51 were diagnosed as having DLBL. Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) was diagnosed in 6 patients. One patient had marginal zone B-cell lymphoma. Thirty-five patients with DLBL (10 patients with PPF and 25 without PPF) and 3 patients with BL were treated with the CHOP/R-CHOP regimen. The NHL-BFM-90 program was used in 3 patients with BL and 16 with DLBL (15 patients with PPF and 1 patient without PPF). RESULTS: After radiotherapy, the patient with marginal zone B-cell lymphoma achieved a 20-month remission; three BL patients receiving CHOP died. All the BL patients receiving NHL-BFM-90 achieved complete remissions of 48 to 72 months. In 9 patients having DLBL without PPF, who received CHOP, five-year overall and event-free survival rates were 100%; in 22 patients with PPF, these were 50 and 45%, respectively. In the patients with and without PPF, who received CHOP/R-CHOP, the survival rates differed statistically significantly (p = 0.01; logrank test). In the group of 15 patients having DLBL with PPF, who were treated with the NHL-BFM-90 protocol, 14 achieved an average remission of 17 months. In the patients having DLBL with PPF who used NHF-BFM-90, therapeutic efficiency was significantly higher (p = 0.05; Fisher's exact test). CONCLUSION: Differential therapy for primary lymphomas of bones and soft tissues indicated that the NHL-BFM-90 protocol used in the PPF group was significantly more effective than the CHOP regimens.
