[Clinical study of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma--results of the Kanazawa University-Kurume University Cooperative Study on Malignant Lymphomas].

Ninety-two patients with previously untreated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were studied multidisciplinarily. The high incidence of NHL in elderly men (older than 60 years) was confirmed. With regard to the initial site, 51 patients (55.5%) were affected in the nodal region while other patients were affected in the extranodal or Waldeyer's ring region. Eighty-two patients (89.1%) were diagnosed as having diffuse lymphoma, and 47 of these patients were further classified into large cell type (LSG classification). Surface marker analysis revealed that the incidence of B cell-type NHL was twice as high as that of T cell-type NHL. All patients were entered into a randomized trial of radiotherapy and/or combination chemotherapies (ACOP, ACOP-E and AclBEP regimens) according to clinical stage. More than 90% of the patients with early-stage NHL achieved complete remission (CR), and the CR rate for patients with advanced-stage disease was about 50%. All patients with CS I NHL are still alive at 27 months after diagnosis, and the survival rate of patients with CS II NHL at 35 months after diagnosis is 80%. However, the median survival time of patients with advanced-stage disease was estimated to be 16 months.