1995 Volume 36 Issue 2 Pages 106-114
For salvage chemotheray, 30 cases of relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were treated with MMIP regimen (mitoxantrone 15 mg/m2, methotrexate 400 mg/m2, and ifosfamide 2 g/m2 intravenously in day 1, respectively, and prednisolone 20 mg/m2 orally from day 1 to 5).
The overall complete response rate (CR rate) was 20% and the median survival duration was 153 days. In patients with favorable performance status (PS), the CR rate and survival duration were 30% and 407 days, respectively. These results were almost equivalent to previously proposed salvage regimens. The overall disease free survival rate of CR cases at 4 years was 62%, which was excellent as compared with the other salvage regimens. Five of 8 (62.5%) patients previously treated with etoposide-non-containing regimens achieved CR, and the CR rate was significantly superior to that of patients previously treated with etoposide-containing ones. These results indicate that MMIP is a useful salvage regimen for relapsed or refractory NHL, while it seems to be difficult to salvage patients previously treated with etoposide-containing regimens.