Chemotherapy of intermediate- and high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with a high-dose doxorubicin-containing regimen.

Forty-seven previously untreated patients with intermediate- or high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were treated with four courses of a regimen that consisted of high-dose (120 mg/m2) Adriamycin (doxorubicin; Adria Laboratories, Columbus, OH), vincristine (2 mg), cytarabine (3 gm/m2), and dexamethasone (50 mg intravenously [IV] on day 1 and 20 mg/day orally on days 2 to 5) (AVAD), which was administered every 3 to 4 weeks. The median age of the patients was 58 years; 72% were Ann Arbor stage IV, 49% had "B" symptoms, 62% had masses larger than 7 cm, 40% had masses at least 10 cm in diameter, and 49% had serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) greater than 250 U/L. Overall, 72% of the patients (89% of diffuse large-cell lymphoma [DLCL] patients) attained complete (CR) or probable complete responses (PCR), and relapses occurred in 32%. There were no episodes of clinical congestive heart failure, but one patient developed recurrent ventricular arrhythmias. Fever during neutropenia occurred with 65% of treatment courses. Three deaths were attributed primarily to complications of therapy. The lymphoma-free survival of all entered patients is 51% (24 of 47), with a follow-up of 30 to 67 months (median, 58 months). These results confirm that high CR/PCR and long-term survival rates can be achieved in patients with aggressive histologies of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, even in groups with poor prognostic factors, using high-dose anthracycline-containing chemotherapy regimens delivered over a short period of time. However, the apparently higher relapse rate in comparison to our previous study leads us to speculate that consolidation with noncross-resistant agents may be helpful in increasing even further the cure rate in this group of patients.