HOAP-Bleo as salvage therapy for diffuse aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

A total of 30 patients with recurrent or unresponsive diffuse, aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, who had previously received doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone with or without bleomycin were treated with a combination of doxorubicin, vincristine, ara C, prednisone, and bleomycin (HOAP-Bleo). Complete remissions were achieved in 33.3% of the patients and partial remissions in 13.3%. Four of the ten complete responders relapsed at 4, 10, 11, and 18 months. Myelosuppression was the major toxicity and nonhematological toxicities were acceptable. Their median survival from the date of first relapse was only 4-5 months.