NHL (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma)

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is the sixth most common cancer in the UK; 9443 new cases were diagnosed in the UK in 2002, and it caused 4418 UK deaths in 2003. Incidence rates show distinct geographical variation, with age-standardised incidence rates ranging from 17 per 100,000 in northern America to 4 per 100,000 in south-central Asia. NHL occurs more commonly in males than in females, and the age-standardised UK incidence increased by 10.3% between 1993 and 2002.

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of first-line treatments for aggressive, or for relapsed aggressive, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma)? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to January 2010 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

We found 26 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: allogeneic stem-cell support, chemotherapy (conventional dose salvage, high-dose plus autologous transplant stem-cell support, conventional dose in people with chemosensitive disease), CHOP 14, CHOP 21, CHOP 21 with radiotherapy, CHOP 21 with rituximab, ACVBP, MACOP-B, m-BACOD, PACEBOM, and ProMACE-CytaBOM.