A retrospective study of eighty-two patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma whom we had treated for the past ten years was performed to discuss the prognosis (50% survival duration (50%s) and 5-year survival rate (5ys)) of the histopathological types, clinical stages and therapeutic regimens respectively. Patients were staged according to the Ann Arbor criteria and classified histopathologically according to the Lymphoma Study Group (LSG) and new Working Formulation. The treatment programs consisted of radiotherapy alone (Co alone), VEP regimen (vincristine, cyclophosphamdde and prednisolone), VEPA regimen (VEF + adriamycin) and radiotherapy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (co + chemotherapy). Survival curve was calculated by the method of Kaplan and Meier. Camparisons in remission duration and survival were analyzed by the Logrank test.
Results: 1. In 82 evaluable patients, 50%s was 27 months and 5ys was 31%. For patients with complete remission (CR), partial remission (PR) and no response (NR) 50%s was 49, 6 and 4 months respectively (CR vs. PR: p less than 0.01). 2. For the several histopathological types 50%s was the following: d-medium (6 months) less than lymphoblastic (17 months) less than d-large (27 months) less than d-small (32 months) less than pleomorphic (43 months). There was difference in 50%s and 5ys for three grade malignancies classified by new Working Formulation (p greater than 0.10). 3. For clinical stages (Cs) 50%s was the following: Cs I; 40 months, Cs II: 49 months, Cs III: 43 months and Cs IV: 6 months respectively. There was no difference in its duration in Cs I, II and III (p less than 0.10). However, in 5ys Cs I was superior to Cs II, III and IV in order (Cs III vs. Cs IV: p less than 0.01). 4. For initial therapy the prognosis was better with VEPA regimen (50%s: 49 months, 5ys: 39%) than with VEP regimen (50%s: 24 months, 5ys: 24%) (p greater than 0.10), and with Co + chemotherapy (50%s: 54 months, 5ys: 30%) than with Co alone (50%s: 18 months, 5ys: 25%) (p greater than 0.10). 5. For localized lymphoma (Cs I, II) the prognosis was better with VEP regimen (50%s) 80 motnths, 5ys: 62%) than with Co alone (50%s: 32 months, 5ys: 27%) (p greater than 0.10), and the remission duration was significantly longer with VEP regimen than with Co alone (p less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)