On long-term survivals in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with 'gentle' treatment

Eighty-seven cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas from the Southern California Permanente Medical Group have been reviewed. The patients were treated between 1953 and 1960, all in an era of 'minimal' radiotherapeutic and chemotherapeutic treatment. The favourable prognostic factors for long-term survival using gentle treatment are, firstly, nodular pattern, presenting in clinically localised Stages I and II and, secondly, diffuse well-differentiated lymphocytic lymphoma (DLWD) presenting either in a localised or generalised fashion. In this series moderate dose irradiation (2500 rad) to involved areas with or without modest chemotherapy has resulted in the survival of 26 out of 32 DLWD patients for more than five years and in most cases for over ten years.