Autotransplant Approach with Rituximab in High Grade Primary Refractory or Progressive Non Hodgkin's Lymphomas (NHL). 2nd Report

摘要

In the setting of refractory or progressive high grade NHL we adopted a specific mobilization regimen (MEC) followed by rituximab infusion (purging in vivo), and G-CSF. BEAM was the conditioning regimen. Thereafter, the patients underwent four weekly rituximab infusions. Four patients have entered the study. Three were affected by diffuse large cell lymphoma (DLCL) stage IV, one by Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) stage IVeB. All the patient completed the protocol. Three with DLCL achieving complete response; the patient with BL achieved a partial response lasting only one month. So, in this subset of very bad prognosis lymphomas such a transplant regimen associated with rituximab revealed to be safe and feasible, moreover it was able to stop the progression of the disease in DLCL while it failed in Burkitt lymphoma.