Background and methods: From February, 1987 to August, 1988, fifty-one patients with high and intermediate grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) entered a chemotherapy program MNCOP-B (M = Methotrexate, N = Novantrone, C = Cytoxan, O = Oncovin, P = 6 methyl-prednisolone, B = Bleomycin). Forty patients received MNCOP-B as first-line therapy and 11 patients as salvage therapy after relapse-resistance to other schemes or radiotherapy.
Results: The overall remission rate was 51% with a similar distribution of remissions between the two groups under study. At a mean follow-up of 28 months, 20 patients (40%) remain in CR with a disease-free probability of 83% for patients treated with MNCOP-B as up-front therapy and 67% for patients treated with MNCOP-B as salvage therapy. The overall survival at 3 years is 45%; bulky, disease stages III-IV and symptoms are not correlated with poorer survival or a lower remission rate. Patients who received less than 70% of the scheduled doses paradoxically figure better than the others, showing an 87% remission rate, as compared to those who received 100% of the scheduled doses and obtained a 35% remission rate. Major toxicity consisted of mucositis, recorded in 15% and 9% of previously untreated and treated patients, respectively; severe neutropenia was recorded in 27% and 63%, respectively. Despite the number of recorded side effects, only one toxic death due to sepsis occurred.
Conclusions: MNCOP-B is an effective regimen in intermediate and high grade NHL and easily manageable in the out-patient clinic. The incidence of mucositis is sensibly reduced as compared to the parental regimen MACOP-B reported in the literature; this result allows the use of MNCOP-B in older patients.