[Curative aspects of modern combination chemotherapy in generalized malignant lymphomas]

102 patients with disseminated stage III B and IV malignant lymphoma (52 with Hodgkin's disease and 50 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma) at the same hospital center were analysed with respect to remission rate, quality and duration of remission, survival, and therapeutic toxicity. The patient group was subdivided into two consecutive 3-year groups (1966-1968 and 1969-1971). While the 1966-1968 group was mainly treated by "simple", individually tailored monochemotherapy, supplemented if necessary by local irradiation, the 1969-1971 group was systematically treated by intensive combination-chemotherapy programs based on multiinstitutional studies. The following conclusions could be drawn: 1. Remission rate, especially the percentage of complete remissions, and remission duration greatly increased in a comparable group of patients and in both types of lymphoma during the period 1969-1971 as compared to earlier experience from 1966-1968. 2. An increasing proportion of patients with disseminated Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin lymphoma experienced (partly calculated) longterm survival of 5 or more years after the start of chemotherapy or after widespread dissemination of the disease. 3. The probability of longterm survival of females with Hodgkin's disease in our patient group was significantly better than for male patients. This prognostic sex-dependence was not found in the patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 4. Quality and duration of the first induced remission seems to have an important bearing on longterm survival and correlates positively with the life expectancy of the patients with all forms of lymphoma.