Treatment of resistant non-Hodgkin's lymphomas with cisplatin, etoposide, and bleomycin

A combination of cisplatin (60 mg/m2 i.v. on day 1), etoposide (100 mg/m2 i.v. on days 1-3) and bleomycin (15 mg i.v. on days 1 and 8) (PEB regimen) was given every 4 weeks as salvage therapy in 10 refractory and 13 relapsing patients with poor-prognosis non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. All but one of these patients had previously been treated with anthracycline-containing combination chemotherapy. We observed 4 complete remissions (CRs) and 4 partial responses (PRs), whereas 3 patients showed only a minor response (MR) and 12 were considered to be induction failures. Therefore, the objective (CR + PR) response rate was 35%. The most frequent side effect was vomiting, registered in all patients despite antiemetic treatment. Hematologic toxicity was of moderate degree, and bone marrow recovery was observed after almost all cycles after a 3-week rest period. Since objective responses were achieved only in relapsing patients, the PEB regimen seemed to be effective in these cases, whereas it was useless in early refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.