[Long-term evolution of nodular lymphoma. Outcome in 85 patients treated between 1968 and 1975 (author's transl)]

Eighty-five patients with nodular lymphoma diagnosed between 1968 and 1975 were followed up for long periods and were treated by either conventional methods (local radiotherapy and single drug chemotherapy) or by more intensive therapeutic regimens, such as initial combined M.O.P.P. therapy and maintenance treatment with chlorambucil with or without further courses of M.O.P.P. Long-term follow-ups have brought to light some interesting points concerning the prognosis. Dissemination of the disease and large-cell histological pattern were, as already known, unfavourable factors. Neither age nor sex, nor bone-marrow involvement seemed to have any influence. Obtaining complete remissions improved the prognosis, but intensifying the initial and maintenance treatments proved disappointing: the survival rate remained the same, and the incidence of drug induced leukaemias was high. Indeed, relapses appeared to be less responsive to treatment when the patient had initially received multiple chemotherapy. However, in view of the high death rate of the disease (one-third of the patients in this series died within the first 5 years), trying new therapeutic regimens in the hope of obtaining better results, as has been done in Hodgkin's disease, would be fully justified.