COMBINATION SALVAGE CHEMOTHERAPY WITH MIZE (IFOSFAMIDE-MESNA, IDARUBICIN AND ETOPOSIDE) FOR RELAPSING OR REFRACTORY LYMPHOMA

In this study, 54 patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were treated in a phase II, multicentric trial with ifosfamide-mesna 1500 mg/m2 IV days 1–3, idarubicin 12 mg/m2 IV day 1 and etoposide 100 mg/m2 IV day 1–3 (MIZE). Overall response was 72%; complete response (CR) and partial response (PR) were 46% and 26% respectively. In Stage I—II pts CR was 59% and in Stage III-IV pts CR was 40.5%. Patients who relapsed from an initial CR had a 64% CR rate when treated with MIZE, in contrast to refractory disease's patients who only had 19% CR (p = 0.004). The group of pts that had an objective response (CR + PR) to front line therapy had a 2 year survival rate of 55% compared with none for refractory disease (p = 0.029) after salvage therapy. Median survival for the entire group was 17.5 months. Better survival was seen in pts who were asymptomatic with low levels of LDH, previous CR, non high-grade histology, and limited disease stage at relapse. Toxicity was mainly hematologic: 91.5...