Inpharma 1356 - 21 Sep 2002

Ifosfamide-based regimen in NHLand HD

Combination therapy with ifosfamide plus epirubicinand etoposide is effective in the treatment of patientswith relapsing or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin’slymphoma (NHL) or Hodgkin’s disease (HD), accordingto researchers from Italy.

They report the results from an extended follow-upstudy of 62 such patients who were treated with thisregimen, 45 of whom subsequently underwentautologous bone marrow transplantation. Treatmentconsisted of IV ifosfamide 2500 mg/m2/day plus IVetoposide 150 mg/m2/day on days 1 to 3, and IVepirubicin 100 mg/m2 on day 1. The cycle was repeatedevery 21 days, with a target total of 3 courses.

At study end, the overall response rate to treatmentwas 78%, complete and partial responses were achievedby 21 and 27 patients, respectively. No significantdifferences in response rate were observed betweenpatients with HD and those with NHL. After a medianfollow-up of 25 months, 37% of the patients were incontinuous complete response status. Of the 45 patientswho underwent bone marrow transplantation, 27 wereclassified as complete responders after grafting and 23retained their complete response status after a medianof 25 months of follow-up. Mobilisation of peripheralblood stem cells was successful in 33 of 45 patients.Zinzani PL, et al. Ifosfamdie, epirubicin and etoposide (IEV) regimen as salvageand mobilizing therapy for relapsed/refractory lymphoma patients. Haematologica87: 816-821, Aug 2002 800916702

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Inpharma 21 Sep 2002 No. 13561173-8324/10/1356-0001/$14.95 Adis © 2010 Springer International Publishing AG. All rights reserved