[COP-BLAM III regimen for elderly non-Hodgkin's lymphoma]

Although the third generation regimens for the treatment of malignant lymphoma are used more predominantly than those of other generations in recent years, a number of elderly patients die due to the toxicity of those treatments. We treated elderly patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with COP-BLAM III, and compared its therapeutic and adverse effects on elderly NHL patients (more than 65 years of age) with those in non-elderly patients. Nine previously untreated elderly NHL patients (4 males and 5 females, with a median age of 71 years) and 13 previously untreated NHL non-elderly patients (6 males and 7 females, with a median age of 43 years) were treated with COP-BLAM III. According to the Ann Arbor staging rules for malignant lymphoma, 4 and 6 elderly patients were classified in stage III and IV, respectively, while 6 and 7 non-elderly patients were in stage III and IV, respectively. There were 5 elderly patients with diffuse large cell type lymphoma (D. large), 3 with diffuse medium-sized cell type (D. medium) and one with diffuse mixed-cell type (D. mixed), while there were 6 non-elderly patients with D. large, 6 with D. medium and one with D. mixed. The COP-BLAM III regimen consisting of portion A with continuous infusion of the drugs and portion B with intravenous bolus administration of drugs was identical to that used by Boyd et al. Portion A and portion B were repeated every 3 weeks alternatingly. The administration of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) was started, when the granulocyte count fell to below 1,000/microliters.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)