Long-term follow-up of patients receiving salvage chemotherapy for intermediate and high grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas

This is an analysis of the long‐term follow‐up data of 99 patients receiving HOAP‐Bleo, IMVP‐16 and PAC as salvage chemotherapy for refractory or relapsed intermediate or high grade non‐Hodgkin's lymphomas. Most of the patients received HOAP‐Bleo or PAC following failure of initial chemotherapy and IMVP‐16 was used mainly for HOAP‐Bleo failures. The longest follow‐up time of the surviving patients was 108 months. Twenty‐two and 29 per cent of the patients survived beyond 2 years following HOAP‐Bleo and PAC respectively. The treatment outcome following IMVP‐16 was worst with a 2‐year survival of only 5 per cent, as it was used mainly following HOAP‐Bleo failures. Although the prognosis of these refractory or relapsed cases are poor, salvage treatment is still worthwhile as a small proportion of these patients may have long‐lasting remissions and occasional patients may be cured. Newer approaches such as autologous bone marrow transplantation should be compared with current salvage chemotherapy regimens.