High dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation for poor risk and recurrent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a single-center experience of 50 patients.

Background: The long-term survival of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma after conventional chemotherapy is about 35%, with the remaining 65% of patients tending to be refractory or experience relapse. As such, primary refractory patients responding to salvage chemotherapy, and sensitive relapsed patients and primary high-risk patients are recommended to receive high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT). We evaluated the role of HDC and autologous PBSCT in patients with primary refractory, primary high risk, and sensitive relapsed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.