Primary treatment of Waldenström macroglobulinemia with dexamethasone, rituximab, and cyclophosphamide.

Purpose: Alkylating agents and the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab are among appropriate choices for the primary treatment of symptomatic patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM), and they induce at least a partial response in 30% to 50% of patients. To improve these results, we designed a phase II study that included previously untreated symptomatic patients with WM who received a combination of dexamethasone, rituximab, and cyclophosphamide (DRC).

Patients And Methods: Seventy-two patients were treated with dexamethasone 20 mg intravenously followed by rituximab 375 mg/m2 intravenously on day 1 and cyclophosphamide 100 mg/m2 orally bid on days 1 to 5 (total dose, 1,000 mg/m2).

Pure infradiaphragmatic Hodgkin's lymphoma. Clinical features, prognostic factor and comparison with supradiaphragmatic disease.

Background And Objectives: Pure infradiaphragmatic Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is a rare disease. The prognostic impact of a purely infradiaphragmatic localization of this lymphoma is controversial. We aimed to evaluate the baseline clinicopathologic features, prognostic factors and outcome of a large series of consecutive patients with pure infradiaphragmatic HL.

A randomized trial comparing intensified CNOP vs. CHOP in patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The standard CHOP regimen may cure 30-40% of patients with advanced aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (ANHL). Mitoxantrone is an anthracenedione, which is active in NHL and its toxicity profile may be more favorable than doxorubicin with respect to alopecia, mucositis and cardiotoxicity. This study was designed to compare the effectiveness of an escalated dose of mitoxantrone with that of standard doxorubicin, used in the CHOP regimen in patients with ANHL.