A combination of two non-cross-resistant regimens, CEOP and IMVP-Dexa given every 4 weeks, three to six times according to response was tested in patients with untreated histological proven high and intermediate grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. To date eight Austrian centres entered 37 patients in this multicentre trial. Data are available from 33 patients, three were excluded, two because of pretreatment, one because of wrong histology. Twenty-five patients are evaluable for response, 21 had a complete and three a partial remission, two of them entered a complete remission after radiotherapy to residual disease, resulting in a complete remission rate of 92 per cent. Only one patient progressed during therapy. Until now three patients relapsed after achieving a remission. Observation time is 0.4-23.8 months, median 8.8 months. Toxicity was primarily hematologic with 53.3 per cent of patients having granulocyte nadirs below 0.5 x 10(9)/L and 3.3 per cent below 0.1 x 10(9)/L. Although 60 per cent of patients had infections, there was only one life-threatening infection in an AIDS patient. CEOP-IMVP-Dexa can be safely given even in smaller hematologic centres and is able to achieve a high rate of complete responses in patients with high and intermediate grade malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.