ESHAP versus rituximab-ESHAP in frail patients with refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Background: Treatment for refractory lymphoma in frail patients (older, poor performance status, or concomitant diseases) has not been defined.

Patients And Methods: A total of 100 frail patients naive to rituximab therapy were allocated to be treated with ESHAP (etoposide, methylprednisolone, cytosine arabinoside, and platinum; 53 patients) or RESHAP (rituximab plus ESHAP; 47 patients). Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor was used to ameliorate the presence of severe granulocytopenia.

In vitro proliferation and expansion of hematopoietic progenitors present in mobilized peripheral blood from normal subjects and cancer patients.

In the present study, we have assessed, in a comparative manner, the in vitro proliferation and expansion potentials of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) present in mobilized peripheral blood from normal subjects (MPB-n; n = 18) and cancer patients (MPB-c; n = 18). The latter included patients with breast cancer (BrCa; n = 8), Hodgkin disease (HD; n = 4), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL; n = 3), and acute myeloid leukemia (AML; n = 3). Progenitor cells from normal bone marrow (BM) and umbilical cord blood (UCB) were included as controls.