Ifosfamide in the treatment of lymphoma

Currently, approximately 50% of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are eventually cured. Most patients who are cured reach a complete response after first-line chemotherapy, but a meaningful number of patients with partial response and those whose treatment fails or whose disease relapses can achieve a durable disease-free remission with effective salvage therapy. This usually involves multidrug intensive chemotherapy with or without bone marrow transplantation. Ifosfamide, an active drug in this setting, is a component of many of these salvage regimens. Some results with the combination of ifosfamide/etoposide, sometimes combined with mitoxantrone and/or cytarabine, are presented. Many relapsing lymphoma patients will require additional treatment after salvage chemotherapy, such as high-dose therapy with bone marrow transplantation, to realize a better long-term outcome.