High rate of clinical and molecular remissions in follicular lymphoma patients receiving high-dose sequential chemotherapy and autografting at diagnosis: a multicenter, prospective study by the Gruppo Italiano Trapianto Midollo Osseo (GITMO).

Single-center experiences have shown that intensified treatments with autologous transplantation are a promising therapeutic strategy for patients with high-risk follicle-center lymphoma (FCL) at diagnosis, whereas data from prospective multicenter trials are still lacking. This paper describes the results of a prospective multicenter study of an intensified purging-free high-dose sequential (i-HDS) chemotherapy schedule with peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) autografting. The main feature of this program is harvesting stem cells after intensified chemotherapeutic debulking, with no ex vivo manipulation of PBPCs.