One hundred autotransplants for relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease and lymphoma: value of pretransplant disease status for predicting outcome.

PURPOSEOne hundred autotransplants for Hodgkin's disease (HD) or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were examined prospectively to identify variables with prognostic significance.PATIENTS AND METHODSNinety-six patients with relapsed or refractory HD or NHL underwent 100 autotransplants. Patients received high-dose carmustine (BCNU), etoposide, cytarabine, and cyclophosphamide (BEAC) followed by unpurged autologous stem-cell rescue.RESULTSThe 3-year actuarial event-free survival (EFS) rate for the 47 HD patients is 49%, with a median followup duration of 2 years. For the 53 NHL patients, the 3-year actuarial EFS rate is 40%, with a median follow-up duration of 19 months. By multivariate analysis, minimal disease on admission (all areas < or = 2 cm) is associated with improved EFS (HD, P = .003, NHL, P = .03). The projected EFS rate for HD patients entering with minimal disease is 70% versus 15% for patients with bulky disease (P = .0001). The projected EFS rate for NHL patients with minimal disease is 48% versus...