Tentative dose-monitoring of doxorubicin in lymphoma patients.

We have investigated the feasibility of individual dose-monitoring of doxorubicin in lymphoma patients. The purpose was to overcome the large variability of the early-phase kinetic parameters of the drug. We have used a test-dose and calculated for 32 patients a therapeutic dose which could allow us to obtain a predetermined early drug exposure. Such a predetermined drug exposure was obtained in 24 patients of the study. Important variations of the early clearance occurred in 8 patients.