Abstract
Individualizing the doses of cancer chemotherapy agents and progress in supportive therapy have improved the prognosis for elderly patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Prolonged hospitalization elderly patients has adverse effects, which include dementia, difficulty in walking, and depression. We treated 10 elderly patients (≥85 years) with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as outpatients with oral etoposide, 25mg or 50mg daily for as long as possible, or until the white blood cell count decreased to ≥2, 000/μl or the platelet count decreased to ≥5×104/μl. Complete remission was achieved in 4 patients and partial remission in 4; the median duration of survival was 19 months. Adverse effects included leukopenia in 1 patient (≥1, 000cells/μl), thrombocytopenia in 1 patient (≥5×104cells/μl), and anorexia in 1 patient. These results indicate that prolonged oral administration of low-dose etoposide is effective and safe for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in elderly patients. This outpatient chemotherapy caused no serious adverse reactions.
