[O.E.R.T.C. study on the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas: origin-aims-means (author's transl)]

In 1975, the radiotherapy-chemotherapy group of the O.E.R.T.C. has proposed a therapeutic study upon non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Patients are included in the experiment but for the term of balance particularly considering medullar and hepatic involvement; exploratory laparotomy is performed only in patients aged less than sixty. The Ann Arbor classification is used for staging. Stage I cases undergo primary radiation therapy without randomization, followed or not by maintenance chemotherapy. Supradiaphragmatic stages II receive mantle field therapy followed if necessary by a prophylactic infradiaphragmatic irradiation. Infradiaphragmatic stages II are exposed to total abdominal irradiation, and after this, to supradiaphragmatic prophylaxis if needed. All stages II are randomized between two regimens of maintenance chemotherapy. Stages III and IV may be treated with two regimens of induction chemotherapy and following maintenance chemotherapy; in stage III cases an irradiation of the icebergs is performed. Finally, total irradiation of stages III or IV is possible for centers desiring it.