[Half-body irradiation and drug-resistant non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Apropos of 9 cases].

Nine patients, aged 19 to 57 years (mean: 37 years) with non hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) secondarily resistant to chemotherapy (8 stages CS IV involving the bone marrow and 1 stage III) were studied. Histologic forms according to the Lennert classification were as follow: 1 nodular centrocytic which developed into a diffuse centroblastic, 3 diffuse immunoblastic, 4 diffuse centrocytic-centroblastic, and 1 T cell lymphoblastic. The nine patients were managed by external irradiation of the lower half of the body (LHBI), followed six weeks later by irradiation of the upper half of the body (UHBI). A single dose of 8.00 Gy in 7 cases and 6.00 Gy in 2 cases was delivered. Three patients developed severe medullary aplasia. Each of these patients had received 8.00 Gy and been given a course of chemotherapy between the two radiation sessions. The aplasia was fatal in two patients. Overall apparent clinical remission rate was 5/9, with one iatrogenic death at 3.5 months; one lost to follow-up after 8 months; for three other cases, the duration of apparent complete remission was 15, 22 and 36 months. One patient was alive in partial remission 30 months after irradiation. Three patients who failed to respond to treatment, were died between 4 and 11 months.