The response of diffuse large cell and other intermediate grade non-Hodgkin's lymphomas to adriamycin containing combination chemotherapy.
Adriamycin containing combination chemotherapy (ACCC) is usually delivered to patients with stages III, IV diffuse large cell (DLCL) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Although this mode of therapy is also commonly used in other intermediate grade lymphomas, it's role in the latter subset of patients is not well defined. In a retrospective analysis we evaluated and compared the outcome of previously untreated DLCL and non-DLCL intermediate grade lymphoma patients who received as initial therapy, "first generation" ACCC. No differences in response and relapse rates between these subgroups were observed. The trend towards the survival advantage observed for the non-DLCL patients, is probably due to a lower mortality over 5-8 years, for complete responders.