High-dose therapy of Burkitt's lymphoma in patients over 40 years of age]

Aim. To analyse efficacy and tolerance of high-dose polychemotherapy (PCT) of Berkitt's lymphoma (BL) in patients aged over 40 years. Material and methods. High-dose PCT was given to 6 BL patients aged 41-56 years (median 48.1 years). Results. Complete clinicohematological remissions were achieved in 4 patients. In two of them the treatment was discontinued after three blocks of PCT because of severe infectious complications. According to 4-12 month follow-up, remission continues. Remission was not achieved in two patients: one patient had primary resistance, the other died of sepsis after the second PCT course before remission. The time to remission did not correlate with age. Duration of myelotoxic agranulocytosis varied from 2 to 24 days. Duration of agranulocytosis did not correlate with age. Infections complicated 19 of 20 PCT blocks. Severity of complications caused withdrawal of three patients. Conclusion. BL is biologically heterogenous as it demonstrates different responses to BL-M-04 program. Causes of slow regression of tumor mass in some patients need further investigations. In spite of a great number of infectious complications high-dose therapy has no alternative.