[Salvage therapy for recurrent or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with etoposide, methotrexate, vindesine and prednisolone (EMVP)].

Seventeen patients with recurrent or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were treated with EMVP (Etoposide 75 mg/m2 i.v. d 1-5, Methotrexate 100mg/m2 i.v. d 1, Vindesine 3 mg/body i.v. d 1, Prednisolone 60 mg/m2 p.o. d 1-5), repeating every 3 weeks. Six complete responses (35%) and five partial responses (30%) were obtained with an overall response rate of 65%. The median duration of response was 26 months (range 8-49+months) for complete response (CR) and 4 months (range 2-6 months) for partial response (PR). The median duration of survival was 31 months for CR, 11 months for PR and 10 months for all patients, respectively. The major toxic effect was myelosuppression. Leukopenia less than 1,000/mm3 and thrombocytopenia less than 25,000/mm3 occurred in 5 and 3 patients, respectively. The other toxicities were alopecia, nausea and mucositis. However, these toxicities were well tolerated and clinically manageable. These results suggested that EMVP therapy was an effective regimen for patients with recurrent or refractory lymphoma.