[Treatment of indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphomas]

Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas (NHLs) are a heterogeneous group of entities with different pathologies. A total of 80% of these lymphomas are B-cell origin and only 20% T-cell. B-cell lymphomas express CD-20 antigen, a specific target for the current treatment with monoclonal antibodies. Indolent lymphomas in localized stages (I and II) account for 20%, only 10% being in pathological stages. The possibilities for cure with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy are approximately 50-70%. Advanced stages (IIB, III and IV) of phenotype B types account for 80-90% of the cases and are candidates for systemic treatments with immunochemotherapy for those of phenotype B. Rescue treatment is one of the most important problems in this type of lymphomas, many of them needing second line treatments, with survival rates under five years, in spite of the 50% response rate. In these cases, immunochemotherapy includes more aggressive regimens, high-dose chemotherapy and combined chemoimmunoradiotherapy.