Current status of chemotherapy in the treatment of malignant lymphomas

: Chemotherapy of malignant lymphomas has accomplished a significant progress during the two decades. Cure can be expected in a significant proportion of patients, even those with advanced disease. The major obstacle for cure is selection and overgrowth of a drug-resistant tumor cell population. For this reason, a number of investigators have tested the efficacy of intensive chemotherapy including non-cross-resistant alternating regimens and hybrid regimens. Today, with intensive combination chemotherapy, at least 60% of patients with advanced Hodgkin's disease and 50% of those with diffuse large cell lymphoma can be curable. The authors update the review of the chemotherapy for malignant lymphomas, and also report outcomes of chemotherapy in our own patients.