Background and objective: The treatment of the patients with relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma(NHL) remains difficult. It was reported that DHAP regimen(cisplatin + Ara-C + dexamthsone) was an effective salvage therapy, but there was no report about it in China. The current study was designed to observe the efficacy and toxicity of DHAP regimen for the patients with relapsed and refractory NHL.
Method: Seventeen patients with relapsed and 10 with refractory intermediate or high grade NHL was involved in this study. These patients were treated with cytarabine 1 g/m2 intravenous(i.v.) every 12 hours on day 1 to 2, cisplatin 20 mg/m2 i.v. on day 1 to 4, dexamethone 40 mg i.v. on day 1 to 4. Four patients with CR after DHAP were followed by autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation(APBPCT).
Results: Overt responses to DHAP were seen in 12 patients (44.4%) including 8 complete responses(CR) (29.6%) and 4 partial responses (PR) (14.8%). The effective release time lasted a median of 4.8 months. Median survival time was 8.3 months. 1-year and 2-year survival rate were 30.8% and 19.3%, respectively. Myelosuppression was the major toxicity; 15 patients(57.7%) had grade III-IV neutropenia and 21 patients (80.8%) had grade III-IV thromcytopenia, but there was no treatment-related death.
Conclusion: The authors conclude that DHAP regimen is an effective salvage therapy for the patients with relapsed and refractory NHL, but the remission duration time is short and long-term prognosis remains poor. High dose chemotherapy supported by APBPCT is necessary for improvement in long-term survival.