The Effect of CHEP-OB Combination Chemotherapy in Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Background : CHOP (cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, prednisolone, vincristine) regimen is still the standard therapy for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but its complete response rate & long-term survival rate are 4555% and 30%, respectively. New chemotherapy regimen will be required for enhancing response rate and duration of survival. We tried to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with newly developing CHEP-OB (cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, etoposide, prednisolone, vincristine, bleomycin) combination chemotherapy which include etoposide, bleomycin in preexisting CHOP regimen. Methods: 51 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma who admitted to Busan Paik Hospital lnje University between January 1996 and August 2002 were selected. They were treated with CHEP-OB combination chemotherapy given every 34 weeks for total 6 cycles. Results: Objective response was achieved in 82.4% of the patients. Complete response (CR) and partial response (PR) rates were 66.7% and 15.7%, respectively. CR rate was significantly lower in patients with T cell immmunophenotype. Five year overall (OS) and failure-free survival (FFS) rate were 61.9%, 54.7%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that sex, stage and attainment of CR were factors independently predictive for OS and that stage and attainment of CR were factors independently predictive for FFS. Major side effect was myelotoxicity. Conclusion: CHEP-OB combination chemotherapy might be useful as a treatment strategy in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma considering similar response and survival rate, lower toxicity when it is compared with 3rd generation combination chemotherapy. But more effective chemotherapeutic regimen needs to be explored.