The Treatment of Elderly Patients with Aggressive Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas: Feasibility and Efficacy of an Intensive Multidrug Regimen

The results of a prospective trial of an 8 week treatment for elderly patients with advanced intermadiate -high grade NHL are reported. Our aim was to reduce general toxicity without losing an antilymphoma effect. For this reason the use of growth factor was studied. We also analysed the behaviour of different histological groups (E + F vs G + H). From November 1991 to November 1993 100 patients older than 65 years with combination intermediate-high grade advanced stage NHL were treated with the P-VEBEC regimen, an original including epirubicin 50 mg/sqm, cyclophosphamide 300 mg/sqm and etoposide 100 mg/sqm on weeks 1, 3, 5, 7; vinblastine 5 mg/sqm and bleomycin 5 mg/sqm on weeks 2, 4, 6, 8; prednisone 50 mg/sqm/day per os in the first two weeks and thereafter every other day. 46 pts received rG-CSF 5 μg/Kg/day throughout the treatment starting on day 2 of every week for 4 consecutive days. Twenty eight pts had B symptoms, 41 had bulky disease, 37 LDH levels above normal, 50 stage IV patients and 30 had b...