[Chemotherapy of malignant lymphoma]

Forty years ago, nitrogen mustard was first used in the treatment of a group of six patients with neoplastic diseases, including lymphosarcoma and Hodgkin's disease at Yale University. Since then different kinds of chemotherapeutic agents have been discovered, which clinical efficacy was reviewed as a single agent and in combination. Especially over the past two decades, the management of malignant lymphoma has improved significantly with combination chemotherapy. Now there are several potentially curative regimens, such as MOPP therapy for Hodgkin's disease, and MOPP (or C-MOPP), CHOP (or HOP), BACOP and COMLA for diffuse histiocytic lymphoma. There are recent trends to include methotrexate in combination and to use two non-cross-resistant regimens alternatively (CVP/ABP, MOPP/ABVD) for improving complete remission rate and remission duration. Treatment for favorable histologies, and clinical features and treatment of adult T-cell leukemia lymphoma were also briefly reviewed.