ivAd-p53

High‐dose chemotherapy (HD‐CT) with autologous stem cell transplantation is considered to be the treatment of choice for relapsed high‐grade non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) patients, but the optimal treatment has not yet been defined. We evaluated a salvage treatment regimen consisting of conventional cycles with ifosfamide, etoposide, cytarabine, and dexamethasone (IVAD) followed by two cycles of HD‐CT consisting of cyclophosphamide, melphalan, and etoposide (CMV) with autologous stem cell support in patients with relapsed or refractory NHL (n = 59) and HL (n = 16). Response to IVAD was complete remission (CR) in 16 patients (21%), partial remission (PR) in 39 patients (52%), stable disease (SD) in 18 patients (24%), and progressive disease (PD) in two patients (2.7%). Of 70 patients treated with HD‐CT, 41 patients (59%) showed a CR, 20 patients a PR (29%), eight patients a SD (11%), and one patient a PD (1.4%). The 5‐yr overall survival for the entire group of patients was 29%, and for patients with NHL and HL 25%, and 38%, respectively. The respective event‐free survival probabilities at 5 yr were 22%, 16%, and 31%. Seven treatment‐related deaths due to septicemia (three), cardiac arrhythmia (one), pneumonia (one), pneumonitis (one), and toxic epidermal necrolysis (one) were observed. In multivariate analysis, an International Prognostic Index of ≥2 and resistant disease to first‐line chemotherapy were poor independent prognostic factors for the subgroup of patients with NHL. In conclusion, these results indicate that IVAD/CMV is feasible as a salvage therapy for lymphoma patients. This treatment is currently evaluated with the addition of rituximab.

Twelve patients with localized Ewing's sarcoma were treated between 1980-1990 at the Istanbul School of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Oncology-Hematology, Oncology Research and Treatment Center and Our Children Leukemia Foundation. There were 8 boys and 4 girls, with a mean age of 8.1 (range 3-17) years. The tumors were in the femur in 3 patients, in the humerus and rib in 2 patients each and in the tibia, radius, vertebra, clavicula and pelvis in 1 patient each. Chemotherapy alone was applied in 2 patients, 1 patient had chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The remaining 9 cases were treated with Chemotherapy and radiotherapy (during the chemotherapy). The chemotherapy protocols were: VAC (n = 5), VACA (n = 3), IVAD (n = 3) and T.9 (n = 1). One patient died from the disease itself. Remissions were achieved in the other 11 patients. After 5 to 95 months (mean: 22 months) 7 patients had relapsed (4 had local and 3 had distant metastases). Three patients were not able to be followed, 3 died due to additional problems (infection, cardiotoxicity). The best prognosis was achieved when Ewing's sarcoma initiated in the long bones, with less than 100 ml tumor volumes and patients were under 5 years old. There were no significant differences among chemotherapy protocols.